By Adam Entous and Rebecca Harrison
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli leaders vowed on Monday tostep up their war against Hamas over rocket fire from the GazaStrip and predicted the Islamist group's government in theterritory would fall within months.
With Defence Minister Ehud Barak pledging to intensify amilitary campaign in Gaza, Vice Premier Haim Ramon said heexpected Hamas, which seized control of the enclave last June,to be forced out.
"I believe a combination of steps against Hamas in Gazawill bring an end to the Hamas regime in Gaza," Ramon toldreporters.
"They will not last. It will take a few months, maybe itwill take a year. But the end of it will be that Hamas, as aterrorist organisation in Gaza, will not last."
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has faced pressure for tougherreprisals against militants in the Gaza Strip after an8-year-old Israeli boy wounded in a weekend barrage of rocketfire had part of his leg amputated. He said Israel was at"war".
"Our security forces have the approval to take...what theysee as all the necessary steps -- with our agreement -- so thatthe situation can be changed," Olmert told reporters during avisit to Berlin.
Militants in the Gaza Strip regularly pound southernIsraeli towns with rockets and mortars, in what Hamas says is aresponse to Israeli attacks.
The Jewish state regularly launches raids against militantsin Gaza, and its incursions have killed around 700 Palestiniansover the past 12 months, Gazan officials say. Two Israelis werekilled last year by cross-border rocket attacks from Gaza.
Scores of residents from the Israeli border town of Sderot,which has been hardest hit by the rocket fire, held a secondday of protests on Monday calling for harsher governmentaction, blocking the main highway into Tel Aviv.
Israel has tightened economic sanctions in Gaza since Hamasseized control in June after routing Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction. But Olmert is wary oflaunching a major ground offensive in the densely populatedcoastal territory for fear of heavy casualties on both sides.
A broader Israeli military campaign could also complicatepeace talks, which U.S. President George W. Bush hopes willlead to a deal before he leaves office to create a Palestinianstate in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"WISHFUL THINKING"
Olmert gave his strongest hint yet on Sunday that Israelcould renew political assassinations. Ramon echoed thosecomments, saying the army should target all Hamas leaders"directly or indirectly" involved in attacks against Israelis.
He also said Israel should respond to rockets byimmediately attacking areas from where salvoes are launched andby further restricting electricity and fuel -- a strategydenounced as "collective punishment" by internationalorganisations.
Hamas dismissed Ramon's comments as "wishful thinking" andsaid Israel was in cahoots with Abbas, who holds sway in theWest Bank and is pursuing U.S.-backed peace talks with Israel.
"Betting on siege and aggression to topple Hamas wouldprove to be a complete failure," Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhrisaid.
Ramon reiterated that if Hamas stops the rocket fire fromthe Gaza Strip, Israel could agree to a ceasefire. He also saidaction against Hamas in Gaza should go hand-in-hand withstepped-up peace negotiations with Abbas.
Hamas has offered a long-term truce with Israel in returnfor a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
Barak said the army would work in "every way" to stop therockets, would intensify air strikes and ground incursions andwas preparing for a possible extensive operation in Gaza. Buthe did not suggest an offensive was imminent.
The Jewish state pulled troops and settlers out of theterritory in 2005 but still controls most of its borders.
(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, JeffreyHeller in Berlin, Brenda Gazzar and Dan Williams in Jerusalem;Writing by Rebecca Harrison; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
