BBC NEWS

01/01/09

A senior Hamas leader has been killed by an Israeli air strike on his home in the Gaza Strip, Hamas officials say.

Nizar Rayyan, the most senior Hamas figure to be killed since 2004, had urged suicide attacks against Israel.

News of the strike came on the sixth day of Israeli strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian medical sources say 402 people have been killed. Israel says it is trying to prevent militants from firing rockets into southern Israel.

Mr Rayyan is the most senior Hamas leader to be killed since the death of Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in April 2004.

Long reach of Israel

Since its bombing campaign began last Saturday, Israel has attacked Hamas fighters and commanders.

Sites linked to Hamas have also been hit, including smuggling tunnels under the border to Egypt, government buildings and security compounds.

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Hamas considered Mr Rayyan to be a political leader, but he often wore a military uniform and was close to the group’s armed wing.

Until now, political leaders have not been killed.

The BBC’s Mike Sergeant, in Jerusalem, says this may further strengthen the determination of Hamas to resist the Israeli air assault.

But it will also be seen as an indication that the Israeli military can target key members of the Hamas leadership – the people Israel says are responsible for the rockets being fired towards Israeli towns, our correspondent adds.

Four Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rockets fired into Israel since Saturday.

Humanitarian warning

On Wednesday, Mr Rayyan had promised that Hamas would hit Israel “even deeper” than it has so far.

On the Hamas-run al-Aqsa television channel, he said Hamas militants were preparing for any Israeli ground incursion, saying “we will kill the enemy and take hostages”.

At least nine other people, some said to be members of Mr Rayyan’s family, were also killed in the air raid on his home in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip.

The deaths come as the main UN agency operating in Gaza, Unwra, has resumed food deliveries, but warned of a dire humanitarian situation in the territory.

The UN says at least 25% of the 402 Palestinians killed were civilians; Palestinian medical officials say more than 2,000 people have been injured.

Israel is refusing entry to Gaza for international journalists and has declared the area around it a “closed military zone”, leading to speculation a ground offensive into the tiny coastal strip could be imminent.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said it was not his country’s aim to return to the Gaza Strip but did not rule out a ground attack.

“The aim is to stop terror. Our aim, if you ask me, is a positive one – to make peace,” he told the BBC.

Ceasefire calls ignored

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Israel wanted to weaken Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“At the end of the day, Hamas is a problem not only for Israel but to the entire Palestinian people… They are the problem to all the Arab states that understand – that have their own radical elements back home,” she said after talks in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Sarkozy is travelling to the Middle East next week in an attempt to bring an end to the crisis.

Both Israel and Hamas have ignored international calls for a ceasefire.

A draft UN resolution put forward by Egypt and Libya failed after the US and UK complained that it called on Israel to ends its air assaults but made no mention of Hamas rocket attacks against Israel, which they say started the latest hostilities.

For the current violence to end, Israel needs to show that it has stopped the rocket fire, says the BBC’s Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen.

But if Hamas can still resist, its leaders will feel they can claim victory. Hamas believes that its fighters who are launching rockets into Israel are taking part in legitimate resistance against an occupier, he adds.