Fatah: Israeli deputy premier threats 'racist'

At a news conference in Ramallah, Fatah spokesman Osama al-Qawasmeh said Eli Yishai's remarks revealed dangerous intentions and aimed to terrorize the Palestinian people.

During Israel's eight-day war on Gaza, Yishai said the goal of the operation was "to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages."

Al-Qawasmeh said Israel's premier Benjamin Netanyahu "pushes the Israeli street to the extreme" with calls for violence ahead of Israeli elections, and yet claimed there was no Palestinian partner for peace.

A government led by Netanyahu, Yishai and controversial Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman "is a government that rejects peace," al-Qawasmeh told reporters.

During the recent war on Gaza, Ariel Sharon's son wrote in The Jerusalem Post that "We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshima – the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki, too."

"There should be no electricity in Gaza, no gasoline or moving vehicles, nothing." wrote Gilad Sharon, a reserve in Israel's army.