Israel tries to kill Hamas leader, peace process

While the Israeli Army hinted at an admission in a statement entitled ‘‘Attack against a senior Hamas official’’ — which didn’t refer specifically to Rantissi — Israeli security sources confirmed the fact. ‘‘Israel will continue to fight terror. The policy hasn’t changed, because the Palestinian Authority isn’t doing it’’, one senior source said.

Speaking to al-Jazeera television by telephone from his hospital bed, the Hamas leader vowed vengeance. ‘‘We will maintain our jihad and resistance until we kick out every single criminal Zionist from our land.’’

‘‘We will fight them with all our might. This is our land…and we will defend it’’, he said, before sending a direct warning to Israeli President Ariel Sharon. ‘‘Sharon, …you and all Israelis will not be safe until you leave this land.’’

At the White House, Bush’s spoksesman Ari Fleischer said the President was concerned ‘‘that the strike will undermine efforts by Palestinian authorities and others to bring an end to terrorist attacks and does not contribute to the security of Israel’’.

Rantissi, 56, one of Hamas’s best-known public faces, has taken centre stage over the past week in rejecting calls by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to cease attacks on Israelis under the terms of the ‘‘road map’’ peace proposal.

A co-founder of the radical Islamic movement, he had refused to go into hiding like many of his Hamas comrades on Israel’s wanted list since the group launched a suicide bombing campaign to spearhead a 32-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.

Instead, the Egyptian-trained paediatrician continued living openly in a third-storey apartment in Gaza City where his only security consisted of a bodyguard stationed at the bottom of a staircase outside.

He has long depicted himself as a member of Hamas’s political hierarchy with no connection to its military wing. But Israeli officials refuse to accept the distinction, accusing him of being a top decision-maker and of using his media role to incite attacks on Israelis.

With Rantissi filling the role of Hamas spokesman, camera crews from around the world have trooped to his modestly furnished living room to hear him issue vows of revenge, often in calm, even tones, for Israel’s killing of Hamas militants. His hardline approach has won him many admirers among Palestinian youth increasingly radicalised amid Israel’s crackdown in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. (Reuters)