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Israel Seeks to Kill All Hamas Leaders

Posted on: Tuesday, 23 March 2004, 06:00 CST

JERUSALEM - Israel will strike at more Hamas leaders, the defense minister said Tuesday, and the Islamic militant group named hard-liner Abdel Aziz Rantisi to replace its assassinated founder.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and his security chiefs decided in a five-hour meeting late Monday to try to kill the entire Hamas leadership, without waiting for another terror attack, security sources said.

Israel's police minister, Tzahi Hanegbi, warned that "anyone who is involved in terrorism in Gaza or the West Bank ... knows after yesterday's assassination that no one is immune."

Rantisi, a hard-liner who rejects all compromise with Israel, was chosen to be the new leader of Hamas following the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin in an Israeli missile attack.

Rantisi said he emerged from secret elections in Gaza as the overall chief of Hamas and was chosen to head the group's political bureau, the main decision-making body. The bureau has been led by Khaled Mashaal, a Hamas operative based in Syria.

"We will be unified in the trenches of resistance. We will not surrender, we will never surrender to Israeli terror," Rantisi told The Associated Press. "We have to strengthen the unity of the Palestinians. The continuation of resistance is going to be my goal."

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