Hamas Says All Israeli Leaders are Legitimate Targets for Resistance

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri said that every Israeli is a target for the militant group as he defended the plot to assassinate Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Zuhri said that while he had no knowledge of the West Bank plot to kill Lieberman, "all the leaders of the occupation are considered legitimate targets for resistance".

"The leaders of the occupation, who are responsible for the killing of women and children and the desecration of holy places, are legitimate targets," Zuhri added, according to Israel's Channel 10 news.

Hamas' leader Mahmoud al-Zahar recently stated that the militant group are to expand their activity in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

Israeli authorities arrested four Palestinians, three of whom were members of an alleged Hamas cell, on suspicion of plotting an assassination attempt on Lieberman by attacking the minister's car with an anti-tank missile as he drove to his Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.

The assassination plot was apparently made during the summer conflict in Gaza between Palestinians militants and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The suspects had believed that killing Lieberman "would relay a message to the State of Israel that would bring about an end to the Gaza war", according to the Shin Bet security agency.