JERUSALEM
Two Israeli cabinet ministers on Wednesday praised an attempt one day earlier on the life of the top commander of the Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.
Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar told Israel radio Wednesday that Mohamed Deif should be assassinated "whenever possible."
He went on to call for fresh ground operations in the embattled Gaza Strip with a view to achieving this objective.
The minister said Israel must strive to break Hamas' military abilities and pound the movement into submission.
Israeli Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Perry, for his part, described the Tuesday attempt on Deif's life as an "important signal" that no Hamas commander was safe from assassination, according to Israel Radio.
Earlier in the day, Israel's Channel 2 quoted an unnamed Israeli political source as saying that Deif had been the target of an Israeli airstrike on a house in northwestern Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighborhood late Tuesday.
The broadcaster went on to say it remained unclear whether Deif had been hurt in the strike.
Palestinian sources, meanwhile, have confirmed that Deif's wife and daughter were both killed in the Israeli attack.
Deif has survived several previous Israeli assassination attempts.
In 2002, his car was hit by an Israeli missile; four years later he was seriously injured in an attack on a house in which he was staying.
Violence between Israel and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip re-erupted on Tuesday following the collapse of indirect ceasefire talks hosted by Egypt.
Israel claims it pulled its delegation from Cairo after rockets were fired at it from Gaza on Tuesday.
The self-proclaimed Jewish state has since carried out several fresh strikes on the besieged coastal enclave, which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians, killing at least 11, including four children.
The latest fatalities bring to 2028 the number of Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, killed by Israel since hostilities began in the first week of July.
Hamas, for its part, has described the latest Israeli attacks as an attempt to undermine Egypt-brokered ceasefire talks.
The Qassam Brigades, meanwhile, claimed to have fired 50 rockets at Israeli cities on Tuesday in response to the fresh Israeli airstrikes.
According to Israeli figures, at least 64 Israeli soldiers have been killed in recent ground battles with Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip – the highest military death toll for Israel in any of its military offensives on the coastal enclave.
Three Israeli civilians, meanwhile, were also killed in July by rockets fired from Gaza.
Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has reeled under a crippling Israeli blockade that has badly affected the local economy and played havoc with residents' livelihoods.
By Abdel-Raouf Arnaout
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en
