Hamas: Militants not targeting America

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- The new Hamas leader in Gaza said Wednesday the militant group had no plans to attack U.S. targets, while another top official in the organization said it has targeted Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for death.\nThe Islamic group had made veiled threats it would retaliate against the United States for Israel's assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, Monday, but it has rarely attacked American targets during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\nFearing retaliation, Israel has gone on high alert since Yassin's death, and troops south of the West Bank city of Nablus stopped a 16-year-old Palestinian boy wearing a suicide bomb vest from crossing through a checkpoint. Soldiers forced the boy, Hussam Abdo, to remove the explosives-packed vest and strip to his underwear.\nThe army said its experts later detonated the bomb.\nIt was unclear whether he was sent as a suicide bomber or as a courier trying to smuggle the bomb through the checkpoint. His neighbors in Nablus identified him as a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine militant group.\nIsraeli troops also entered a village near the northern West Bank town of Jenin, witnesses said, and gunfire was heard in the area. The village was put under curfew and tanks were outside it, the witnesses said.\nIsraeli military officials confirmed forces entered the village of Yamoun after being shot at. The soldiers returned fire and chased the gunmen into the village, the officials said on condition of anonymity.\nArmy tanks later surrounded the village, which was put under curfew, witnesses said. Residents reportedly threw stones at the soldiers.\nAbdel Aziz Rantisi, a hard-liner named Tuesday as Hamas' new Gaza chief, said the group's militant activities were aimed solely at Israel, which it has pledged to destroy and replace with an Islamic state.\n"We are inside Palestinian land and acting only inside Palestinian land. We are resisting the occupation, nothing else," Rantisi told reporters in Gaza. "Our resistance will continue just inside our border, here inside our country."\nRantisi denied reports Hamas would join with al Qaeda, calling the claims "Zionist propaganda."\nPalestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Wednesday he opposed "any attack on civilians, whether they were Israeli or Palestinian."\nTuesday, The State Department repeated a long-standing warning urging Americans not to travel to the Gaza Strip.\nWednesday, meanwhile, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who is based in Damascus, Syria, said the group's military wing would assess its abilities to kill Sharon.\n"I hope that the holy warriors can retaliate against this awful crime by targeting the most prominent Zionist leaders ... including Sharon," Mashaal said in an interview posted on a Hamas Web site. "I hope they can succeed."\nFor its part, Israel has decided to target the entire Hamas leadership. Israel says Hamas has killed 377 Israelis in hundreds of attacks, including 52 suicide bombings, over the past three and a half years.\nRantisi, who survived an Israeli assassination attempt in June, said Wednesday he was not concerned.\n"It's death by killing or cancer," said Rantisi, a trained physician. "If it's cardiac arrest or an Apache (helicopter), I prefer to be killed by an Apache."\nRantisi, 54, has appeared in public frequently since Yassin's death, but always in large crowds that deter an Israeli attack.\nTens of thousands of Palestinians at a Gaza City soccer stadium cheered the announcement Tuesday night that Rantisi had been chosen leader. One by one, senior Hamas officials got up and swore loyalty to him.\nRantisi rejects even a temporary suspension of attacks against Israel.\nHe led about 1,000 people in noon prayers Wednesday at the stadium, where Hamas has organized mourning for Yassin. As he spoke to reporters afterward, he was surrounded by about 25 youths wearing green Hamas bandannas.\nSeveral hundred women, many wearing Hamas headbands, gathered in a mourning tent near Yassin's home in a run-down Gaza City neighborhood and chanted: "Rantisi, give weapons to the women."\nSecurity has been stepped up throughout Israel, and malls, restaurants and buses have been empty as people remain close to home.\nThe Israeli military went on the offensive in Gaza and along the Lebanese border to prevent Palestinian attacks. A total of four Palestinian militants were killed in the fighting.