HERZLIYA, Israel, 23 January 2008 — The Israeli Army has been ordered to destroy Hamas structures in Gaza as part of a three-pronged strategy aimed at toppling the Islamists, a senior Israeli official told AFP yesterday. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided in a meeting last week to order the army to destroy “Hamas power symbols” in the Gaza Strip, he told AFP.

“We have begun targeting ministries, police stations, army and government buildings that are used by Hamas in Gaza in order to weaken the regime there,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The other measures against the Islamists include continuing air and ground operations against militants and rocket launching cells, as well as economic sanctions on the territory, the official said.

In the first sign of the implementation of the new policy, Israeli warplanes on Friday flattened a four-story building in Gaza City used by Hamas as its Interior Ministry.

The building was empty at the time, but the strike killed a woman in a nearby building and wounded dozens of others, many of them attending a wedding. It came a day after Barak ordered Gaza’s borders sealed in response to persistent rocket fire.

International aid agencies warned yesterday that the Gaza Strip is at risk of a “total collapse” of its infrastructure as Israel’s economic blockade left it without vital power and food supplies. “There is a major risk of a total collapse of all the infrastructure,” said Dorothea Krimitsas, spokeswoman for the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. “The blockade measures have an enormous human cost and we have asked Israel to immediately lift all retaliatory measures,” she said.

“The population finds itself hostage to this conflict and is suffering the most serious consequences,” with hospitals under particular strain given the lack of supplies and electricity, Krimitsas said.

The head of the UN children’s agency UNICEF echoed her concerns. Executive Director Anne Veneman said she was “very concerned” at the situation of children in Gaza.

“We are very concerned about the situation of children in Gaza ... children are always the victims in times of conflict,” Veneman told journalists at the launch of UNICEF’s annual report on the state of the world’s children.

At least five people were wounded yesterday when a Hamas-called protest at Gaza’s Rafah border crossing turned violent with an exchange of fire between Egyptian forces and Palestinians. Gunfire erupted on both sides as helmeted Egyptian security forces were trying to push back hundreds of Palestinian protesters, many of them women, who were trying to force their way to the Egyptian side of the crossing.

At least four Palestinians were shot and wounded in the exchange, medics said. Egyptian security sources said 11 policemen were injured, including one from gunfire and the other 10 from rocks thrown at them. Several bloodied people were rushed from the scene on stretchers and wailing ambulances whisked them away, but the extent of their injuries was not immediately clear.

Amid the mayhem, dozens of Palestinians managed to break through to the Egyptian side of the crossing — Gaza’s sole border crossing that bypasses Israel.