GUY RAZ, host:
From NPR News, this is All things Considered. I'm Guy Raz filling in today for Robert, Michele, and Melissa. In Gaza, Palestinian doctors say the death toll has topped 400. Israeli fighter jets continued bombing for the sixth day in a row. Today, one airstrike killed a Hamas leader, Nizar Rayan. He is the most senior member to die since the Israeli offensive began last Saturday. Meantime, rocket fire continued to rain down on towns in southern Israel. A senior Israeli Cabinet minister warned that the conflict is far from over. NPR's Eric Westervelt sent this report from southern Israel.
ERIC WESTERVELT: Not long after word of the death of Nizar Rayan, warning sirens sounded throughout Israeli communities within rocket range of Gaza. More barrages were on the way. Here in Ashkelon, people abandoned their cars in the street and fled for cover.
(Soundbite of sirens)
WESTERVELT: Rockets also again struck Ashdod and Beersheba, both cities located some 25 miles from Gaza. No one was seriously wounded in the latest rocket attacks. Inside Gaza, the fire from the air proved far more deadly. Today, at least 17 Palestinians were killed, according to a senior medical official in Gaza, and 92 wounded. Nizar Rayan was an important figure in Hamas' political and military wings. A professor of Islamic law and an imam, or Islamic preacher, Rayan openly advocated renewing suicide bomb attacks against Israel. He was in his house in north Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp when the bombs struck.
The Israeli military said in a statement the house was used as a weapon storage site and Hamas communication center. In addition to Rayan, the airstrike killed at least 11 others including several of his children and two of his four wives. The airstrike also wounded civilians in the densely packed neighborhood. Rami Abu Safeya lives in the Jabalia refugee camp near Rayan's house. We reached him by phone.
Mr. RAMI ABU SAFEYA: (Through Translator) We laid down on the floor. Glass and windows broke all around us. The explosions continued, and then 10 people in my house ran away. Many people in my neighborhood were injured.
WESTERVELT: Back in Ashkelon today, Israel's deputy prime minister, Haim Ramon, said the operation against Hamas was far from over.
Mr. HAIM RAMON (Deputy Prime Minister, Israel): This is not going to be an easy one. Therefore, we have to be very patient - very patient and very determined. And it will take time.
WESTERVELT: Israeli leaders have said from day one that the goal of the punishing air and naval bombardments is to create a new security reality in the south and end Hamas rocket fire - not to overthrow the Islamist group or re-occupy Gaza. But today Minister Ramon argued that regime change in Gaza should be the wider goal of the operation. Ramon said ideally the moderate Palestinian authority leadership led by Mahmoud Abbas - which now controls only the West Bank - should be returned to power in Gaza.
Mr. RAMON: Even to create a Palestinian state is impossible because the Hamas is dominating Gaza. It's impossible. And if the Hamas will continue to dominate Gaza, it will impossible to continue the Annapolis process. Any peace process will be almost impossible to reach. And that's what exactly the Hamas wants.
WESTERVELT: But hardly anyone believes Israel can realistically uproot Hamas' deep support among Gaza's 1.5 million residents and impose a new more moderate Palestinian leadership in the territory. Indeed, a senior Israeli official said later that Deputy Prime Minister Ramon was expressing his personal opinion and not government policy. The official said, quote, "Regime change is not the operation's goal. We have no illusions about that. The goal is to bring about a new quiet in the south," end quote. That stated goal could give Hamas leverage in any cease-fire talks.
Hamas leaders have said they want an end to Israel's stifling economic blockade of Gaza in exchange for a new, informal truce. The conflicting visions among Israeli leaders of what Gaza might look like when the shooting stops is reminiscent of the 2006 Lebanon war. Then Israeli officials seemed frequently at odds over the goals and day-after scenarios of a conflict many Israelis say marked a profound failure of leadership. Eric Westervelt, NPR News, Ashkelon.