The Palestinian resistance group Hamas vowed revenge Saturday after one of its founding members and three bodyguards were assassinated in an Israeli helicopter attack. Hamas threatened to attack Israeli political leaders and said no Israeli should feel safe after helicopter gunships swooped in and fired missiles at a car carrying Hamas resistance leader Ibrahim Makadmeh, 51, Saturday.

"Israel has just widened the field of battle and widened the number of possible targets," said Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas political leader and spokesman, after identifying Makadmeh's mangled body.

"We encourage our cells to plan and prepare strikes against the occupiers ... especially Jewish political leaders," the group's military wing said in a statement.

The last time Israeli occupation forces killed a high-ranking Palestinian political figure was August 2001, when Abu Ali Mustafa of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was slain. His killing led to the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi on Oct. 17, and touched off a series of fierce clashes between Palestinians and Israeli occupation troops in the West Bank.

Makadmeh's killing came after Hamas claimed responsibility for an attack Friday on an internationally illegal Jewish settlement that left two dead, and a resistance bus bombing Wednesday that killed 16.

Sharon's Office Admits Responsibility

Israel rarely takes responsibility for such killings, but in an unusual statement, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's adviser, Shoval, called Saturday's operation in Gaza a "success."

Sharon's new hardline government has promised more attacks against resistance, and on Saturday the occupation army said it would launch more strikes. It has also promised stepped up strikes against Hamas and its infrastructure and appears to be digging into Gaza, considered a stronghold of Hamas.

Israel seized parts of Gaza in its most significant occupation in 29 months of fighting as embattled leader Yasser Arafat moved closer to sharing power.

PLO Central Council Approves Abbas Appointment as Premier

The PLO Central Council, meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Saturday, approved Arafat's request to create the post of Palestinian prime minister and cleared the way for the Palestinian legislature to define the job's powers.

The United States and Israel have demanded far-reaching reforms in the Palestinian Authority as a condition for revived peace talks.

"I want the international community to know that the Israeli occupation is the biggest obstacle standing in front of our reform process," Arafat said Saturday.

Arafat has tapped Mahmoud Abbas for the post, a move that could signal that he has given up on the idea of appointing a politically weak prime minister. Abbas has not given an answer yet.

In Washington, State Department press officer Brenda Greenberg said the United States looked forward to working with "an empowered and credible prime minister," but Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, remained skeptical about Abbas' possible power.

"He is a respected person without any doubt, and I don't doubt his good intentions either, but the real question of course is what authority will he have," Shoval said Saturday.

Council members pressed ahead with talks Saturday while anger flared in Gaza, where funerals for Makadmeh and his three bodyguards were held.

PHOTO CAPTION

Armed Palestinian Hamas resistance men escort Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin sitting in a car during the funeral procession of Ibrahim Makadme, 50, a prominent Hamas leader killed when Israeli helicopters rocketed his car, killing Makadme and three others, along a street in Gaza City Saturday March 8, 2003. (AP Photo/Karel Pri