Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak urged the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers on Monday to rein in militant groups behind a surge in attacks on Israel, coupling his appeal with a veiled threat of Israeli action.
"I think the recent days reflect the inability of Hamas to control the dissident groups, the Popular Committees or Islamic Jihad, who are trying to break the tranquillity," Barak told Reuters during the unveiling of an Israeli anti-rocket system due to be deployed outside the Gaza Strip by June.
"Hamas is well deterred from trying another direct collision with Israel. I hope that they will take over - or else," Barak, asked if a new Gaza war was possible, said in English, referring to the Islamist movement imposing its authority on smaller armed groups.
On Sunday, three Palestinian militants were killed in an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a "powerful response" to any attacks from the territory. Violence has risen along the Israeli-Gaza frontier in the past month, which could further complicate US-backed diplomacy in the region, after a respite since a three-week Gaza war a year ago in which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.