Israel: Despite ongoing international criticism of Israel's policy of targeting leading Palestinian militants, the Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, yesterday indicated that the tactic would continue, praising the killing of a senior Hamas military leader in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday as a "successful and very important operation".
Mr Abdullah Kawasme, the commander of Hamas in the Hebron area, was killed in disputed circumstances.
Israeli officials said he was not in fact targeted, but was shot dead after an anti-terror unit tried to arrest him and he attempted to escape. They said he tried to draw a pistol he was carrying.
Palestinian officials rebuffed the Israeli version, insisting Mr Kawasme had been assassinated. One eyewitness said the Hamas man had just emerged from a taxi when three vans closed in on him, and he was hit by fire from one as he tried to flee.
Israel has accused Mr Kawasme, who was one of the leading figures on the army's "wanted" list, of involvement in the planning of a series of attacks in which more than 40 Israelis have been killed. These include a suicide bombing in northern Israel in March in which 17 people were killed, and the bus bombing in Jerusalem 12 days ago in which another 17 Israelis died.
Mr Sharon told ministers at the weekly Cabinet meeting that if "the Palestinians do not accept responsibility for security, we will continue with our operations".
Israel and the Palestinians are currently engaged in negotiations over the handover of territory in the Gaza Strip to Palestinian security control as part of the efforts to advance the US-backed road-map peace plan.
The Defence Minister, Mr Shaul Mofaz, termed Mr Kawasme "a classical ticking bomb, in fact an assembly line of ticking bombs".
In the wake of a series of strikes on leading Hamas militants in recent weeks, Israel has been debating the exact meaning of the term "ticking bomb" with the United States, which is concerned with Mr Sharon's broad definition, which includes not only those who carry out attacks, but also those who plan them.
While Hamas leaders vowed swift retaliation, Palestinian Authority officials accused Israel of trying to torpedo their efforts to get the radical Islamic group to agree to a deal that would entail a cessation of attacks on Israelis.
"Israel aims to sabotage the possibility of reaching a common Palestinian understanding among the Palestinian factions," said a Palestinian Minister, Mr Ziad Abu Amr.
Mr Sharon also told ministers yesterday that Israel could continue building settlements in the West Bank, but that it should do so without any fanfare. Mr Sharon's comments fly in the face of his acceptance of the road map, which requires a complete freeze on settlement construction as part of the first phase of the plan.
"There's no need to celebrate the building, but just to build," Mr Sharon reportedly told his Cabinet.