Israel vows to sweep Hamas from power

[Fabregas]

“The goal of the operation is to topple Hamas,” Haim Ramon, the deputy to Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, said. It was the first time since it launched its blistering offensive that Israel has openly stated that regime change is its ultimate goal. “We will stop firing immediately if someone takes the responsibility of this government, anyone but Hamas,” Mr Ramon said. “We are favourable to any other government to take the place of Hamas.”

 

It was not clear which party could take control if Israel succeeds in removing the Islamists. The only other party with experience of rule is Fatah, the secular movement that favours peace talks with Israel. But it is unpopular with many Palestinians, who see it as corrupt and ineffective, and was driven by Hamas from Gaza in battle 18 months ago.

 

Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, said Israel was in an “all-out war against Hamas”, while Brigadier-General Dan Harel, the Israeli deputy chief of staff, said that his forces would erase every trace of Hamas from Gaza’s crowded cities. “After this operation there will not be a single Hamas building left standing in Gaza, and we plan to change the rules of the game,” the general said. “We are hitting not only terrorists and launchers, but also the whole Hamas Government and all its wings. We are hitting government buildings, production factories, security wings and more.”

 

That broadening of the offensive was evident in the targets hit yesterday: the Islamic University in Gaza, a hotbed of support for Hamas but also a major educational establishment for students forbidden by Israel from studying outside Gaza, was crushed by bombs. Israel said that its laboratories had been used to improve the crude rockets that Hamas and other militant groups fire into Israel’s southern towns.

 

Israeli bombers also hit the Interior Ministry, the first time in the campaign that it has struck general government buildings, and a further sign that it is determined to prise Hamas’s fingers from all levers of control in Gaza. Along Gaza’s borders, the Israeli military continued to muster tanks and troops in preparation for a ground offensive that many fear would plunge the strip – home to 1.5 million Palestinian refugees – into even more bloody chaos

 

 

read the rest here:

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle _east/article5415759.ece

 

 

for those who are a bit slow: Hamas is the elected government of Palestine.