AP News, May 30th, 2007
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has limited his public appearances because he fears being targeted for assassination by Israel, his spokesman said Tuesday.
"He is frightened by the Israeli forces," Ghazi Hamad told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "He's scared of being assassinated ... so he is taking precautions."
Haniyeh has kept a low profile in recent weeks since Israel resumed a campaign of airstrikes against Palestinian rocket squads and other Hamas targets in Gaza.
Over the weekend an Israeli missile landed close to Haniyeh's home. Israel denied he was a target.
But Hamad, on a visit to Britain before heading to Cairo for talks between Hamas and its moderate rival Fatah, said the Hamas leadership felt unsafe after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's comments on Sunday that "no one is immune."
"We don't trust Israel," said Hamad.
In the past two weeks, Palestinian militants have fired more than 250 rockets into southern Israel. Two Israeli civilians have been killed, and several thousand residents of the border town of Sderot have fled.
In response, Israeli warplanes pummeled Hamas targets, killing some 50 Palestinians _ most of them militants.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah proposed a plan Monday calling for Gaza militants to halt rocket fire for a month to allow for negotiations on a more comprehensive cease-fire. But until now there has been no clear indication of whether Hamas would agree to the plan.
Meanwhile, British officials said they had met with Hamad to discuss the March 12 kidnapping in Gaza of British Broadcasting Corp. journalist Alan Johnston.
Johnston, 45, was abducted in Gaza City by Palestinian gunmen. Palestinian security officials have said they believe a shadowy movement called the Army of Islam is holding the correspondent.
Hamad said he couldn't comment on the talks, but last week he said that a breakthrough was close.
