JERUSALEM, April 21: Israel threatened on Friday to target a top wanted Palestinian militant appointed to oversee security in the new Hamas-led government, as a top general raised the prospect of reoccupying parts of Gaza.

Branding Jamal Abu Samhadana’s nomination proof of the ‘terrorist’ nature of the Palestinian Authority (PA) since the Islamists swept to power, Housing Minister Zeev Boim vowed Israel would reach him sooner or later.

“We have a long account to settle with this notorious terrorist, and his nomination gives him no immunity,” Mr Boim told public radio of Abu Samhadana, who has already escaped two Israeli assassination attempts in the Gaza Strip.

“The nomination of this killer to a security post is the final word in cynicism and demonstrates again the new terrorist nature of the Palestinian Authority since Hamas took control,” said the former deputy defence minister.

“Sooner or later we will get our hands on him,” warned Mr Boim.

The 45-year-old Abu Samhadana, who heads the Popular Resistance Committees, is wanted in Israel for dozens of attacks. Israeli sources say he was involved in an attack that left three US officials dead in Gaza in 2003. But Abu Samhadana said he was fearless about Israeli threats and insisted his new job would not detract from leading his faction.

“The occupation has tried to assassinate me several times in the past but thanks be to God I have escaped. We are not afraid of death. On the contrary, we fight to die as martyrs,” he said.

Labour MP and former Mossad intelligence chief Danny Yatom said nobody involved in ‘terror’ was immune, lashing out even at those in the Palestinian cabinet.

“No one involved in terror can be immune, even if it were the interior minister himself,” he told army radio.—AFP