Israel blasts Palestinian PM's office to pressure Hamas

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli aircraft sent missiles tearing through the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday in an unmistakable message to his ruling Hamas group to free an Israeli soldier.\nPrime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet that the military had been ordered to "do all it can" to return the captured 19-year-old corporal, and cautioned that arrests of senior Hamas officials could spread to Gaza, the Islamic militant group's power base, a government official close to the prime minister said.\nDefense Minister Amir Peretz told the Cabinet meeting that Israel would go after "higher-caliber targets" in the future -- a reference to senior Hamas officials inside and outside the Palestinian territories, a high-ranking political official said.\nIsraeli aircraft, tanks and naval gunboats have been pounding Gaza for the past week in an effort to win the freedom of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was seized June 25 in a cross-border raid that left two comrades dead. Thousands of troops also were sent into the coastal strip for Israel's first ground invasion since quitting Gaza nine months ago.\nLate last week, Olmert called off plans to broaden the incursion in deference to intense diplomatic efforts involving Egypt and other regional players.\nThere has been no direct evidence of the soldier's condition since he was seized by Hamas-linked militant groups.\nSo far, the ground invasion has been focused on southern Gaza, where Israel believes Shalit was taken. On Sunday, officials decided to invade northern Gaza if rocket fire on southern Israel resumes from that area, security officials said.\nThere has been no rocket fire since Saturday night, the military said.\nPalestinians said two missiles fired by attack helicopters set Haniyeh's office ablaze, but it was empty because of the early hour -- 1:45 a.m., witnesses said. One bystander was injured slightly, hospital officials said.\nHaniyeh, inspecting the burning office building, called the Israeli attack senseless.\n"They have targeted a symbol for the Palestinian people," he said.\nLater, before meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Haniyeh vowed, "This will not break the will of the Palestinian people."\nAfter the meeting, the two men surveyed Haniyeh's damaged office together, waving through a hole in the wall.\n"The world must understand that this is a dirty, criminal act," Abbas said.\nIsraeli Cabinet minister Roni Bar-On said the objective of the attack on Haniyeh's office was to "compromise the Hamas government's ability to rule."\n"We will strike and will continue to strike at (Hamas') institutions," said Bar-On, an Olmert ally. "They have to understand that we will not continue to let them run amok."\nHamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, took power after winning January parliamentary elections. The group has a military wing and a political wing, and its political leadership is divided between more moderate elements in the West Bank and Gaza, and the more radical top leadership based in Syria.\nThe gunmen holding Shalit are believed to take their orders from Hamas' Damascus-based political chief, Khaled Mashaal.\nIn other airstrikes after midnight, Israeli aircraft hit a school in Gaza city and Hamas facilities in northern Gaza, where a Hamas militant was killed and another wounded, Palestinian officials said. The military said they were "planning terror attacks against Israel."\nThe 34-year-old Hamas gunman, Shaaban Manoun, was the second militant killed in the five-day Israeli operation.\nIsraeli artillery also fired at open spaces near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the military said. It denied Palestinian radio reports that Hamas training camps were the target. No injuries were reported.\nExerting pressure on Hamas from various directions, Israel continued to hold 64 Hamas leaders, including eight Cabinet ministers, rounded up in the West Bank on Thursday night.\nHamas' roots are in Gaza, and that is where Haniyeh and most other Cabinet ministers live.\n"I don't promise that the arrests of senior Hamas officials will be limited to Judea and Samaria," the official close to the prime minister quoted Olmert as saying, using the biblical names for the West Bank. "Wherever there is a proven terror infrastructure, there will be arrests. There will be immunity for no one."\nThe official spoke on condition of anonymity because the Cabinet session was confidential.\nMilitary officials said the government would bring the detainees before a court this week to seek permission to extend their detention.\nIsrael, meanwhile, reopened its main cargo crossing with Gaza to allow food, medical supplies and fuel to be sent in to the impoverished area from Israel, Israeli officials said.\nWhile food shortages have not been reported, human rights groups have cautioned that Gaza could face a humanitarian crisis because about 43 percent of the territory's electricity supply was knocked out after Israeli missiles struck Gaza's only power station. Israel has increased its supply of electricity to Gaza, the Israeli army said Saturday, but fuel for generators has been scarce.\nOn Saturday, Hamas demanded the release of more than 1,000 prisoners held by Israel, but Israel rejected that out of hand.\nOlmert again said Sunday that Israel would not yield to Hamas' demands.\n"Israel doesn't intend to give into blackmail of any sort," Olmert told his Cabinet. "Giving in today would be an invitation to the next act of terror."\nHamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad urged Israel to be more flexible.\n"I think that if the Israeli government will understand that it's possible to release prisoners, things will end OK," Hamad told Army Radio. "If not, I think the situation will be very difficult for us and for you, too. ... Maybe there will be a (military) escalation and people will die."\nPeretz met with senior security officials Saturday night and then called Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to urge the Bush administration to step up pressure on Syria to work for Shalit's release, Israeli officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make a formal statement.