Crackdown goes on: Israeli PM

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday told his Cabinet that the crackdown against Hamas would continue, saying "no one is immune."

Olmert spoke shortly after a Palestinian rocket slammed into the southern Israeli town of Sderot, killing a 36-year-old man.

Eli Bin, director general of the Israeli rescue service, said the man was wounded in the neck by shrapnel. The man later died of his wounds. The militants fired two other rockets earlier yesterday, damaging a home in Sderot but causing no other injuries.

Olmert said he has instructed the army to "continue to act" against anyone involved in rocket attacks, including those who plan or direct the attacks.

"I want to emphasize, no one who is involved in terror will be immune. No one is immune," he said.

A 10-day Israeli campaign of airstrikes has killed nearly 50 people in the Gaza Strip, most of them militants. But the attacks have failed to halt the ongoing barrages of rocket fire out of Gaza.

The rocket attack came a day after the Islamic group Hamas vowed revenge for a barrage of Israeli airstrikes that killed five militants in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas hardened its stance after Saturday's deadly airstrikes, rejecting calls for a truce and promising more attacks on Israel.

It also warned that if Israel continued its 10-day air assault on Gaza, it would threaten the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier nabbed last June by Hamas-linked militants. Shalit has not been heard from since his capture.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate from the rival Fatah faction, has tried in recent days to revive a ceasefire deal with Israel.

Under his plan, Gaza militants would halt rocket fire for a month to allow for negotiations on a more comprehensive truce that would include the West Bank. Abbas has long been a vocal critic of Palestinian rocket attacks, but he has been powerless to stop the rocket fire.

After a meeting late Friday, the militant groups initially asked for 48 hours to consider the proposal and respond. But after Saturday's airstrikes, Hamas called on its fighters to "direct painful strikes at the Zionist enemy."

Hamas "will not offer a free truce to the Zionist occupation," the group said.

"If there is an end to the attacks, we can talk about a truce," said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Hamas military wing.

He said Shalit's freedom was in danger, but not his life.

"The enemy knows that getting Shalit back is in our hands," he said.

"It would be a dream" that he would be released while attacks continued, he added.

Israel has launched dozens of targeted missile strikes over the past 10 days to halt Hamas rocket fire at southern Israeli border towns. The army said it carried out three more airstrikes overnight yesterday on Hamas targets in northern Gaza. There were no reports of injuries.

In all, the Israeli campaign has killed 48 Palestinians, most of them militants, and damaged many Hamas installations. The army also has arrested more than 30 Hamas officials in the West Bank, including two Cabinet ministers.