No Hamas leader safe from attack

In a new air raid on Gaza on Tuesday, the military struck an abandoned building of Hamas's paramilitary force, lightly wounding nine people, witnesses and security sources said.

"There is no one who is in the circle of commanders and leaders in Hamas who is immune from a strike," Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh told public radio.

"The political branch of Hamas gives its green light to those who fire rockets," he said. "When someone preaches that the state of Israel should be destroyed, he is not in the political echelon, he is a terrorist in a suit."

"Hamas, which is leading the (Palestinian) unity government encourages terrorism and we will not stop hitting it," Defence Minister Amir Peretz told army radio.

The comments came after 35-year-old Shirel Feldman died after a rocket crashed into her car as she was driving in Sderot late Monday, the first deadly rocket strike inside Israel in six months.

Israel has pounded Hamas targets in Gaza for nearly a week in response to a sharp increase of rocket fire from the lawless territory that came amid deadly street battles between Islamist Hamas and its rival secular Fatah.

The raids have so far killed 11 civilians and 25 militants.

The bloodshed in Gaza has driven the impoverished territory, one of the most densely-populated places on earth, to the brink of civil war and has threatened to torpedo attempts to revive the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

It has sparked widespread international concern and calls for restraint from both Israelis and Palestinians.

Visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after meeting with Peretz in Israel on Tuesday: "The violence must stop in all theatres... We need a political dialogue to solve the crisis... This is the only solution."