Two members of the Israeli cabinet opposed this morning's assasination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
"Certainly those who are perpetrating terrorism, preparing a bomb which we know they are about to place somewhere, have to be targeted. But Yassin was not a 'ticking bomb'," Interior Minister Avraham Poraz told Israel Radio today.
Mr Poraz said he and Justice Minister Yosef Lapid, both of the centrist Shinui party, voted in the security cabinet last week against assassinating Yassin following a Hamas double suicide bombing that killed 10 people at an Israeli port on March 14th.
Israeli media reports said they were the only dissenting voices.
"I fear we have opened up a cycle here and that many will pay for it with their lives," Poraz said. "I am afraid that Hamas's motivation will increase. [Yassin] will become some sort of martyr . . . a national hero for them and I'm very sorry to say this won't prevent Hamas from continuing its activities."
Saying "every leader can be replaced", Mr Poraz questioned the wisdom of targeting a Muslim cleric, even one "involved in terrorism".
"The result can be very dangerous," he said.