Israeli defense minister warned yesterday that the incoming Hamas prime minister will be killed if the Islamic militant group resumes attacks. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert delivered the message 3 weeks before the upcoming elections.

Hamas leaders said that they are pressured to acknowledge Israel, considering it "cheap blackmail" trapping them into a fake "peace process". Ismail Haniyeh, the new Palestinian prime minister, stated: "They are not asking anything of Israel, that they recognize the 1967 borders or even the choice of the Palestinian people [in January's election]. They should be making the same demands of them that they make of us. There is a double standard."

Washington, Moscow, Brussels and the United Nations, the peace mediators, declared the conditions needed to be fulfilled after Hamas's victory. The Quartet of countries mentioned earlier wants each Palestinian cabinet minister to recognize Israel when members of Sharon's coalition government opposed the creation of the Palestinian state.

Salah Bardawil, Hamas's leader in the Palestinian parliament, asserted: "There was never any pressure on Israel when it ignored agreements. […] Now we are being asked to recognize Israel when it is annexing half of the West Bank behind the isolation wall."

In the last five years, Israel killed several militants, along with Palestinian bystanders, in targeted attacks. Among the victims was Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi. Since capturing the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967, Israel spent billions of dollars to install 150 settlements there. Last summer, under Sharon's rule, Israel pulled out of Gaza and dismantled 25 settlements.