Hamas leaders go into hiding as Israel plans targeted killings

Leaders of the ruling Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip have scaled back their public appearances and stepped up other security measures, fearing
Israeli assassination attempts in response to a wave of Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel, Hamas officials said Monday.

The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet internal security service are preparing to step up assassinations against key Hamas figures in the Gaza Strip in response to the continued Qassam rocket attacks against Sderot. The renewed campaign of targeted killings is not likely, at this stage, to include members of the Hamas political leadership.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: "We are taking all the precautions. We take the Israeli threats seriously."

He declined to elaborate, but top Hamas officials, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, have not been seen in public for several days.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/952865.html

Not trying to excuse them, just saying.

And vice-versa of course, any Hamas big-shot who expects to live a long time would as a matter of course be mindful that he is a target. Which means that all this blather in the media is just to keep the rubes riled up or pacified, according to todays agenda.

by name, so to speak. All Israeli citizens know they are targetted potential victims of Hamas or other Palestinian militant terrorism, whereas Israel is targetting only the militants themselves, and those militants know who they are.