Israel tried to assassinate Palestinian PM

Palestinian officials accused Israel of trying to assassinate Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and his deputy by sending a poisonous package to the government, the BBC reported.

Four Palestinian government workers have been taken to a hospital in Ramallah early Monday after one of them opened a suspicious package addressed to Haniya.

Reports said the package, which was delivered to the Palestinian cabinet in Ramallah, contained an unknown substance that caused breathing difficulties and headaches to the workers.

Palestinian deputy Prime Minister Nasser al-Shaer accused Israel of trying to assassinate him and Haniya.

He added that the Palestinian government opened an investigation into the incident.

Israel’s secret intelligence agency, the Mossad, has assassinated several leaders of Palestinian resistance groups. And analysts say the Mossad's ability to poison has improved dramatically over the years.

Moreover, the Israeli government, which is determined to continue its policy of targeted killings, has vowed to assassinate top Hamas leaders after the resistance group won the Palestinian elections in January.

Avi Ditcher, a former head of the Shin Beth security service, even said that Ismail Haniya would be "a legitimate assassination target”.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces arrested a top member of the Palestinian parliament during an overnight raid in the occupied West Bank, officials said, according to Reuters news agency.

Fadl Hamdan, also a Hamas member, was detained when Israeli soldiers raided his house in Ramallah.

The arrest came a day after Israeli soldiers seized Aziz Dweik, speaker of the Palestinian parliament and a top Hamas leader.

Israel has detained more than 64 Hamas cabinet ministers, lawmakers and activists in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the past six weeks.

The arrests were denounced by Ismael Haniya as “another crime of piracy by the (Israeli) occupation”.

They were equally condemned by President Mahmoud Abbas's office who called on the international community to intervene to secure the officials’ release.

"We urge the international community to help release the lawmakers and ministers who are held in Israeli jails," said Saeb Erekat, a top Abbas' aide.

In another development, Palestinian officials said a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed in southern Gaza in an Israeli air strike overnight as Israel continued to press its deadly assault in the strip.

Israeli occupation forces also killed an Islamic Jihad fighter near the West Bank town of Jenin on Sunday.

The Israeli offensive is aimed at pressuring the Hamas-led Palestinian government, whose armed wing is part of three other resistance groups who captured an Israeli soldier on June 25.

Hamas has said earlier that it would free the Israeli soldier if Israel agreed to release some of the Palestinian detainees held in its prisoners, specially women and children.

But Israel turned down Hamas’ offer, and continued its offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has so far killed more than 167 Palestinians, mostly civilians.