The flare-up in violence in the Gaza Strip could delay Israel’s planned withdrawal from the crowded coastal area if Israel is forced to launch a new military campaign against Palestinian militants, a senior Israeli official warned today.

A DAY after firing his top security commanders, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas went to the Gaza Strip yesterday to demand militant leaders stop attacking Israelis.

Jewish settlers’ leaders warned Israel’s army chief that hundreds, and possibly thousands, of soldiers could refuse to carry out orders to evacuate them from the Gaza Strip if the government went ahead with its plan to withdraw from the coastal area later this year.

Israel’s deputy defence minister said today that Palestinian militants apparently were not involved the deadly car bombings in two Egyptian resorts crowded with Israeli tourists.

ISRAEL accused Syria yesterday of “directing terrorism” and warned it could face pre-emptive strikes against militants on its territory, but stopped short of saying it killed a Hamas leader in Damascus.

A senior Israeli defence official today accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of direct involvement in terrorism, but refused to confirm Israel was responsible for killing a Hamas leader in Damascus on Sunday.

Israeli forces killed Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the violent Hamas movement, in a missile attack in Gaza early today, an attack that is expected to to escalate Palestinian-Israeli violence dramatically.

A SENIOR Israeli official warned that the founder of the Islamic militant group Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, was “marked for death”.

Israel will kill the founder of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, in retaliation for a suicide attack on border guards, Israel’s deputy defence minister said in the bluntest warning yet against leaders of the Islamic militant group.

Israel is set to resume targeted killings of top Hamas militants and levelled a blunt warning to the group’s elderly spiritual leader that he tops the list of those to be hunted and put to death.

Israel is in the final stages of legalising new West Bank settlements, a violation of its commitments to the United States and to an internationally backed peace plan.

ISRAEL threatened Syria yesterday after Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon fired anti-aircraft shells that killed an Israeli teenager on Israel’s northern border, but said it hoped to defuse tension through diplomacy.