By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM, May 22 (Reuters) - Israel could kill Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas as part of a military campaign to halt rocket salvoes by the ruling Islamist group in the Gaza Strip, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday. Asked if Haniyeh was on Israel's hit-list, Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh said in a radio interview: "I'll put it like this -- there is no one who is in the circle of commanders and leaders in Hamas who is immune from a strike. "For what does political Hamas do? It gives the operational approval to those who are doing the fighting," Sneh told Israel Radio. He issued the threat a day after an Israeli woman was killed by a rocket in the southern town of Sderot, the first fatality in a Palestinian rocket attack since November. Israeli air strikes over the past week have so far killed at least 34 Palestinians, medical officials in Gaza said, including four Islamic Jihad militants on Monday who the group described as a rocket-launching squad. The Israeli military said some 150 rockets have been fired from Gaza in the current wave of violence. The latest Israeli air strikes in Gaza destroyed a metal foundry, which the military said produced weapons, and a building that it described as a "command centre" used by militants. There were no reports of casualties. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, criticised by an official inquiry over his handling of last year's costly Lebanon war, was quoted by the YNet news Web site as telling Sderot residents on Monday: "There is no immediate solution to the Qassam rockets." "DISGRACE" Shouting "disgrace", several people booed Olmert when he visited the town after the 35-year-old woman was killed. They scattered after a siren wailed, signalling incoming rockets. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas planned to go to Gaza later on Tuesday to speak to leaders about maintaining law and order after weeks of fighting between his Fatah faction and Hamas, and perhaps about resuming a Gaza truce with Israel, Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr said. Ahmed Youssef, a Hamas official and senior adviser to Haniyeh, renewed a long-standing call for a comprehensive ceasefire with Israel extending to the occupied West Bank. "The (Palestinian) government is ready to get the factions to accept a ceasefire if Israel stops the series of killings and raids (in the West Bank)," Youssef told Reuters. Israel has said its raids to detain suspected militants in the West Bank are necessary to stop planned attacks on Israelis. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Monday that Hamas has exploited periods of calm to "build up its power" and smuggle weapons across the Egyptian border into Gaza. (Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Corinne Heller in Jerusalem and Wafa Amr in Ramallah)
