"I ordered the army and security forces to act with all their might to pursue terrorists, their ideologists and those who offer them protection," he said at the start of the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting.

Israel struck at the heart of the Palestinian government on Sunday, hitting the Gaza office of the Hamas prime minister in a new wave of air raids, ratcheting up the pressure to rescue the abducted Israeli soldier.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya urged the international community to end Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip as he visited the site of an air strike that hit his office yesterday.

"It's an attack against a Palestinian symbol. We ask the international community and the Arab League to take its responsibilities towards our people and intervene to bring an end to this aggression," he said.

He described the massive operation launched by Israel in the Gaza Strip to free one of its soldiers captured a week ago by Palestinian militants as "an insane policy".

An Israeli air raid struck the premier's office early Sunday, causing a fire but no casualties, witnesses and security sources said.

In an almost simultaneous air strike in the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabaliya, a Hamas militant was killed and another wounded, medical sources said.

The armed wing of Haniya's governing Hamas movement was one of the three groups that claimed responsibility for the abduction of 19-year-old Gilad Shalit on June 25.