By Adam Entous and Joseph Nasr
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A senior Israeli defence officialsaid on Friday that Palestinians firing rockets from theHamas-controlled Gaza Strip would bring upon themselves what hetermed a "shoah", the Hebrew word for holocaust or disaster.
The word is rarely used in Israel outside discussions ofthe Nazi Holocaust of Jews. Many Israelis are loath tocountenance its use to describe other contemporary events.
Israeli air strikes have killed at least 33 Gazans,including five children, in the past two days. Israeli leaderssaid cross-border rocket fire may leave the Jewish state withno choice but to launch a broader military offensive.
One Israeli was killed in a rocket attack on Wednesday inthe southern border town of Sderot. Tensions increased furtherafter longer-range rockets hit the city of Ashkelon.
Visiting Ashkelon, Defence Minister Ehud Barak told Channel10 television an Israeli response was "required" and that"Hamas bears responsibility for this deterioration and it willalso bear the results".
Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai told Army Radioearlier that "the more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and therockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) willbring upon themselves a bigger 'shoah' because we will use allour might to defend ourselves."
Vilnai's spokesman said: "Mr. Vilnai was meaning'disaster'. He did not mean to make any allusion to thegenocide."
Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Arye Mekel, said:"Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai used the Hebrew phrasethat included the term 'shoah' in Hebrew in the sense of adisaster or a catastrophe, and not in the sense of aholocaust."
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Vilnai's remarks wereproof that the Palestinians were faced with "new Nazis".
Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's prime minister in the Gaza Strip,said: "This is a proof of Israel's pre-planned aggressiveintentions against our people. They want the world to condemnwhat they call the Holocaust and now they are threatening ourpeople with a holocaust".
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has so far been wary oflaunching a major ground offensive, which could incur heavycasualties and derail U.S.-backed peace talks with PalestinianPresident Mahmoud Abbas. But domestic pressure is growing.
According to Israel's mass circulation daily, YediothAhronoth, Barak sought to prepare the way for an offensive bysending confidential messages to world leaders, including U.S.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will visit the regionnext week.
MAJOR OPERATION
"Israel is not keen on and rushing for an offensive, butHamas is leaving us no choice," Barak told the leaders, Yediothsaid.
Security sources were quoted by Israel Radio and Army Radioas saying that a major operation was being prepared but was notyet imminent.
Israel pulled troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in2005 but still maintains control of the territory's air space,coastal waters and major border crossings.
Hamas has raised the stakes by using Soviet-designed Gradmissiles, more powerful and accurate than improvised GazanQassams, to strike deep into Ashkelon, a city of 120,000people.
Israel says it can maintain parallel tracks with thePalestinians, one aimed at breaking Hamas's hold on Gaza, andthe other aimed at reaching a statehood agreement with Abbas,whose Western-backed Fatah forces were routed from Gaza in Juneby Iranian-backed Hamas.
Shunned by the West for refusing to renounce violence afterbeating Abbas's Fatah faction in a parliamentary election twoyears ago, Hamas says it would cease fire if Israel stopped itsmilitary operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Hamas is also demanding an end to the Israeli-led blockadethat has cut supplies to the territory's 1.5 million people.
(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Writingby Adam Entous and Joseph Nasr; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
