Ismail Haniya will be at risk unless the wounded Israeli soldier detained by militants in the Gaza Strip is freed, a senior Palestinian official warned on Saturday.
GAZA CITY: The life of Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya will be at risk unless the wounded Israeli soldier detained by militants in the Gaza Strip is freed, a senior Palestinian official warned on Saturday.
"His life is at risk if the Palestinian groups do not free the Israeli soldier," a high-ranking official in Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's office said on condition of anonymity.
"There are Israeli threats against Ismail Haniya through the media," the official said, adding that Abbas had not received any direct messages from the Israeli government.
Without explicitly singling out Haniya, Israeli officials have warned that those involved in militant acts against the Jewish state are not immune from possible attack.
Hamas "is not a government, it is an organisation of killers with a leader in Damascus," Israeli Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Thursday in reference to Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal, who lives in Syria.
"We make no distinction between terrorists. No one involved in terrorism has any immunity," he said when asked about any possible Israeli assassination of Gaza-based Hamas prime minister.
The armed wing of Hamas was one of the three militant groups that claimed responsibility for the soldier's abduction, sparking the worst Israeli-Palestinian crisis since the Hamas government took office in March.
Israel this week arrested scores of Hamas members including ministers and lawmakers and threatened to take further action if 19-year-old corporal Gilad Shalit were not released.
"We view the threats against Haniya as serious," said Mohammed Dahlan, the Gaza strongman of Abbas's mainstream Fatah movement.
"We hope that nothing serious will happen to our brother Haniya or any other Palestinian official," he said.
Israel has launched a vast military operation against the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the June 25 abduction of the soldier during a Palestinian attack on the Israel-Gaza border.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}