JERUSALEM – Israel’s defense minister advised the incoming Palestinian prime minister yesterday to fear for his life if Hamas terrorists start attacking Israel again.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz’s warning to Hamas, recently elected to rule the Palestinian Authority, was the first to identify Hamas’s prime minister designate, Ismail Haniyeh, as a potential target for an Israeli pinpoint attack.

“No one is immune,” Mr. Mofaz told Army Radio, a day after an Israeli air strike on an ice cream truck killed two Islamic Jihad militants and three bystanders in Gaza City. Two of those killed were aged 8 and 14.

Hamas, which is in the process of forming a Cabinet, has rejected international calls to renounce its violent, anti-Israel ideology, but has maintained a year-old moratorium on suicide bombings.

Yesterday, Mr. Mofaz warned that Hamas leaders, including Mr. Haniyeh, could be targets of pinpointed Israeli killings if the bombings resume.

Israel’s policy of targeted killings has proven effective, and will continue, Mr. Mofaz said.

“There is no question about its efficacy,” he said. “Look what happened to Hamas in the years it conducted an untrammeled suicide bombing war against us. When we started the targeted killings, the situation changed,” he said, referring to Hamas’s suspension of attacks.

Asked if Mr. Haniyeh would be a target if Hamas were to resume attacks, Mr. Mofaz replied: “If Hamas, a terror organization that doesn’t recognize agreements with us and isn’t willing to renounce violence, presents us with the challenge of having to confront a terror organization, then no one there will be immune. Not just Ismail Haniyeh. No one will be immune.”

Mr. Haniyeh brushed aside Mr. Mofaz’s warnings and accused Israel of trying to disrupt the formation of a Hamas-led government. “The continued escalation aims to shed more Palestinian blood, confuse the situation and hamper … the formation of the Palestinian government,” he told the Associated Press at the Palestinian parliament.