Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni vowed on Sunday to end Hamas's rule in the Gaza Strip if she is elected prime minister in a February election. "The state of Israel, and a government under me, will make it a strategic objective to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza," Livni told members of her centrist Kadima party. "The means for doing this should be military, economic and diplomatic."
Israel's prime minister earlier brushed aside calls for an immediate large-scale operation in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as Tel Aviv and Hamas forces solidified the end of a six-month ceasefire with strikes from both sides.
Palestinian forces have fired more than 50 makeshift rockets at Israel, which often cause no damage or injuries, and Israel responds with air strikes that are usually fatal and kill civilians.
Unless Hamas stopped the salvoes, Israeli cabinet minister Isaac Herzog said the army would have no choice but to take "severe action", though he did not say what that might entail.
"It needs to be clear. A strike in Gaza will come, and it will be hard and painful," Herzog said after the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Hamas ended on Friday.
The ceasefire initially broke down last month after a fatal Israeli airstrike on Gaza coupled with its crippling blockade of the impoverished strip, a move Israel says is for its protection, but world leaders and organizations have slammed as "collective punishment" of Gaza's 1.5 million people.