Israel warns of new Gaza offensive

Israeli Army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi has threatened a new offensive against the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, suggesting attacks on civilian targets.

Ashkenazi repeated Tel Aviv's allegations against Hamas, accusing the Islamic movement of hiding weaponry in public buildings and residential areas.

He said the Israeli army could be fighting in cities, mosques, hospitals, schools and even kindergartens, blaming the indiscriminate warfare and a likely targeting of civilians on Palestinian resistance fighters.

Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum said Ashkenazi's remarks were made in an attempt to justify Israel's war crimes in Gaza, and could as well be meant to justify future crimes.

Barhoum war alluding to Israel's 22-day military offensive against the populated coastal enclave in January that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and left thousands more injured.

A report by an independent UN fact finding committee headed by former South African judge Richard Goldstone on the weeks-long onslaught charged the Israeli army with deliberate targeting of civilians and using them as human shields.

Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yedlin earlier claimed that Hamas is trying to obtain more weapons and missiles, and that it successfully tested a missile that could reach Tel Aviv, some 60 kilometers (37.28 Miles) away.

He added that during the war on Gaza, Hamas fighters fired shells that managed to hit targets nearly 45 kilometers (28 Miles) away, accusing Hamas of smuggling arms through tunnels on the Rafah border.

Palestinians have rejected the Israeli allegations, saying the tunnels are tubes to push in the basic needs of the 1.5-million-strong population in the impoverished coastal sliver, which has been under a crippling Israeli siege since June 2007.

Hamas says that the remarks and Israeli statements regarding the movement's successful test-fire of news missiles were part of Tel Aviv's effort to divert world's attention from the Goldstone report on the Gaza war.

Israel is trying to persuade other countries to oppose the damning report ahead of the General Assembly debate.

The report is due to be brought before the General Assembly on Wednesday. If adopted, the assembly could ask for the prosecution of Israeli leaders involved in the crimes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.