Israel keeps up Gaza attacks, draws Hamas threats

GAZA, July 11 (Reuters) Israeli air strikes killed a militant and wounded several gunmen and civilians in Gaza today as part of an offensive that Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said would only ensure Israelis have no peace.

''We present this clear message: If Israel will not allow Palestinians to live in peace, dignity and national integrity, Israelis themselves will not be able to enjoy those same rights,'' Haniyeh, a leader of the militant Islamist group Hamas, wrote in an article for the Washington Post.

In the latest action in the Gaza Strip, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at militants transporting and setting up rockets near the northern town of Beit Hanoun, the Israeli army said.

Local residents said one militant was killed and two other gunmen critically wounded. Several civilians were also hurt in the attacks.

Israel, which quit the Gaza Strip last year, has been carrying out air and ground operations in the territory since June 28, three days after militants abducted an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid.

More than 50 Palestinians, some 20 of them civilians, have been killed since the offensive began, Gaza residents and medics said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged yesterday to pursue the campaign indefinitely to secure the soldier's release and halt daily rocket attacks against southern Israel.

Haniyeh, whose governing Hamas group advocates Israel's destruction, said in the Washington Post ''the Gaza invasion is only the latest effort to destroy the results of fair and free elections held early this year'' in the Palestinian territories.

He accused Israel and the United States, which has spearheaded a Western suspension of aid to the Palestinian Authority, of waging ''economic and diplomatic warfare''.

''The stated intention of that strategy was to force the average Palestinian to 'reconsider' his vote when faced with deepening hardship; its failure was predictable, and the new overt military aggression and collective punishment are its logical fulfilment,'' Haniyeh wrote.

Western donor nations have called on Hamas to renounce violence, recognise Israel and accept previous peace deals. Hamas, which defeated the long-ruling Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas in the January vote, has rejected the demands.

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