Israel destroys Palestinian foreign minister's office

GAZA, July 13 (Reuters) An Israeli air strike destroyed the office of Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar today in an attack that signalled Israel would pursue its Gaza offensive while fighting along a second front in Lebanon.

Palestinian security officials said no one was hurt in the night-time raid on the Foreign Ministry building in Gaza City, as Israel pressed an offensive to free a captured soldier and stop Palestinian militants firing rockets into the Jewish state.

Zahar, a senior leader of the ruling Hamas Islamist movement, was not in the building at the time and brushed off the strike. He survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 2003 that killed his eldest son.

''Everybody here is wanted by Israel, everybody is a target, every house is a target and every tree is a target. This is the destructive system built in what is called Israel,'' Zahar told reporters at the site of his ruined offices.

Israel killed at least 24 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip yesterday, including nine members of one family in an air strike that destroyed a house where the army said senior commanders from the Hamas armed wing were meeting.

An Israeli army spokeswoman described Zahar as ''one of the most extremist leaders of Hamas'' but said the attack had not aimed to kill him.

Hamas, which came to power in the Palestinian territories after a January election, is dedicated to Israel's destruction.

The air strike on Zahar's office was part of an offensive Israel launched in Gaza two weeks ago after militants including Hamas gunmen abducted a soldier in a raid into the Jewish state.

Israeli aircraft have also wrecked the Gaza offices of the prime minister and the interior minister, both of Hamas.

Yesterday's toll was the highest number of Palestinians killed in a single day in almost two years.

The Gaza offensive has killed around 80 Palestinians including dozens of civilians, piling pressure on the Hamas government, already reeling from a Western aid embargo. One Israeli soldier has been killed.

Israel pulled troops and Jewish settlers out of Gaza last year after 38 years of occupation.

The Jewish state has also gone on the offensive in Lebanon after Hizbollah guerrillas captured two soldiers and killed eight other troops in cross-border attacks yesterday.

REUTERS SHB VV1802