cabinet minister, Gideon Ezra, said Khaled Meshaal, a Hamas leader based in Damascus, was on the target list.

"The fate of Khaled Meshaal is the fate of Rantissi," Mr Ezra said. "The minute we have the operational opportunity we will do this."

Such an attack in an Arab capital would amount to a dangerous international incident.

The Israeli security forces have a history of strikes against Palestinian leaders overseas, notably the assassination of Abu Jihad in Tunis in 1988, but have refrained from such action since the present intifada began in September 2000.

They have shown no such restraint in Gaza and the West Bank, where they have made hundreds of strikes, usually with helicopter missiles, at members of Palestinian organisations. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been the main targets but they have also included Fatah, the organisation of the Palestinian Authority president, Yasser Arafat, which includes the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, responsible for many of the suicide bombings against Israel.

In the past year the focus has been on Hamas. When it killed the previous Hamas leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, by a missile attack in Gaza City last month, the internal security minister, Tsahi Hanegbi, confirmed there was a target list of Hamas members.

Although he refused to say who was on it, he said it included an English- speaker who made numerous appearances on television on behalf of Hamas.

He meant Rantissi, who was a Hamas spokesman but took over as leader in Gaza on the death of Sheikh Yassin.

An attempt on Rantissi's life, from which he emerged with only a leg wound, was made last June. Although still available for interviews he did not stay at home in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City but varied where he spent the night.

On Saturday he made the mistake of briefly returning home. The missile attack on his car took place a block from his house. It also killed his driver and a bodyguard.

Rantissi was taken to hospital but died within five minutes of arrival.

The Israeli government has been widely condemned for its assassinations policy, which is contrary to international law. Israel insists it has the right to protect its citizens against attack.

The prime minister, Ariel Sharon, speaking at the beginning of a cabinet meeting yesterday, said the policy of hitting "the terror organisations and their leaders" would continue.

The remaining Hamas leaders were sufficiently worried yesterday to avoid naming their new chief. (Rantissi was named leader within four days of the assassination of Sheikh Yassin.)

The military wing of Hamas, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has always stayed under ground. The refusal to name the new leader suggests that the political leaders may even go under ground too.

Mr Meshaal is one of the most important figures on the Israeli hit list. The Hamas powerbase is Gaza but much of its funding is from overseas, primarily from sympathisers in Saudi Arabia.

The money is channelled to Gaza through Mr Meshaal in Damascus. He is more extreme even than Rantissi, who was regarded as a hardliner.

Mr Meshaal strenuously opposed the joint Palestinian ceasefire that has been under discussion for the last two years.

It was out of respect for Mr Meshaal that Rantissi was named as Hamas leader in Gaza only and not overall leader, as Sheikh Yassin was.

The two most important Hamas leaders in Gaza are Ismail Haniya and Mahmoud Zahar. Although Mr Haniya is mentioned too, Mr Zahar is widely believed to be the unnamed successor to Rantissi. He has already faced an assassination attempt: his house was destroyed by Israeli missiles last year.

Hamas warned that the assassination of Sheikh Yassin would open up the "gates of hell". But in the four weeks since his death there has been no suicide bombing in Israel. The wall between Israel and the West Bank has made it more difficult for Palestinians to travel into Israel.

With the removal of the best-known faces in Hamas, the question is whether Mr Sharon will turn its sights on Mr Arafat. The Israeli government said last month that the promise given last year by Mr Sharon to President George Bush not to harm Mr Arafat no longer held.

There would be an international outcry if Mr Arafat were to be killed. There was the same mistaken assumption that Sheikh Yassin too was immune from attack.

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