Olmert vows to target those behind rocket salvoes

By Adam Entous and Avida Landau

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert threatened on Sunday to target all those behind cross-border rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip but warned against a knee-jerk Israeli military response.

Olmert has been wary of launching a large-scale ground operation in the densely populated coastal territory that could result in heavy Israeli as well as Palestinian casualties.

But he is under mounting domestic pressure to do more to counter the rocket fire, which seriously wounded two Israelis, including an eight-year-old boy, in the southern Israeli town of Sderot on Saturday. Part of the boy's leg was amputated.

"We need to act in an orderly and methodical fashion over time. This is what we are doing. This is what we will continue to do," Olmert told his cabinet.

"There is no way to stop the terror completely, in one fell swoop," Olmert later told reporters.

The prime minister vowed to target "all terror elements" in the Gaza Strip -- both those directly responsible for the rocket attacks as well as those who help organize them.

"We will not give special consideration to anyone," Olmert said, the strongest hint yet that Israel could start assassinating political leaders of the Hamas movement, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June after routing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah forces.

Key members of Olmert's cabinet explicitly called for targeting Hamas political leaders.