GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - 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.
The Islamic group had made veiled threats it would retaliate against the United States for Israel's assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin on Monday, but it has rarely attacked American targets during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Fearing retaliation, Israel has gone on high alert since Yassin's death, and troops south of the West Bank city of Nablus stopped a Palestinian boy wearing a suicide bomb belt from crossing through a checkpoint. Soldiers removed the belt with explosives from the boy, who was about 12, and sent in experts to detonate it, the army said.
It was unclear whether the boy was being sent as a suicide bomber or was a courier trying to smuggle the bomb belt through the checkpoint.
Israeli 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.
Abdel 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.
``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.''
Rantisi denied reports that Hamas would join with al-Qaida, calling the claims ``Zionist propaganda.''
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Wednesday he opposed ``any attack on civilians, whether they were Israel or Palestinian.''
The State Department on Tuesday repeated a long-standing warning urging Americans not to travel to the Gaza Strip.
On Wednesday, meanwhile, overall Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who is based in Damascus, Syria, said the group's military wing would assess its abilities to kill Sharon.
``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.''
For 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.
Rantisi, who survived an Israeli assassination attempt in June, said Wednesday he was not concerned.
``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.''
Rantisi, 54, has appeared in public frequently since Yassin's death, but always in large crowds that deter an Israeli attack.
Tens 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.
Rantisi rejects even a temporary suspension of attacks on Israel.
He 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 bandanas.
Several 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.''
Security has been stepped up throughout Israel, and malls, restaurants and buses have been empty as people remain close to home.
The 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.
The army said that troops had killed two armed Palestinian militants who had tried to infiltrate the Gaza settlement of Morag late Tuesday. Troops also confiscated a bag of explosives. Hamas claimed responsibility for the failed attack.
In the Khan Younis refugee camp, forces razed four Palestinian farms, partially demolished two houses and destroyed a road linking two parts of the shantytown during an overnight raid, Palestinian officials said. Early Wednesday, the troops withdrew from the area.
The army said it had removed some brush and two abandoned buildings that were used to fire on settlements. It said troops opened fire after being attacked by an anti-tank missile and gunfire. No casualties were reported.
Late Tuesday, Israeli gunboats opened fire off the coast of Gaza, witnesses said. No one was hurt. The Israeli military said gunboats fired at a suspicious object at sea.
Around the same time, Israeli helicopters opened fire at guerrillas setting up rocket launchers aimed at Israel in south Lebanon, the military said. Lebanese officials identified them as Palestinians and said two were killed and one wounded in the airstrike.
On Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry withdrew diplomats and their families from missions in the Arab countries of Qatar and Mauritania as a precaution.
