(Reuters)-Benjamin Netanyahu, touted by opinion polls to become Israel's prime minister in a Feb. 10 election, said on Tuesday a government under his leadership would use "all means necessary" to end Hamas's rule over Gaza.
Netanyahu, head of the right-wing opposition Likud party, made the comments in a Reuters interview, saying he had answered a call by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "to help out in Israel's PR (public relations) efforts" during its current Gaza operation.
"The action that is required is something that removes this Hamas regime from the scene," Netanyahu said.
Asked if Israel was seeking to do this during the military campaign it launched on Saturday with the declared aim of halting Hamas rocket attacks, he said:
"Whether it can be done right now is something I don't think we should discuss here. But it should be discussed because ultimately, if we don't do it, then Hamas will rearm itself."
Netanyahu replied in the affirmative when asked if removing the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, territory the Islamist group seized in 2007, would be a key goal of a Likud-led government.
As to how it would go about ending Hamas's control of the coastal enclave, he said, without elaborating: "With all the means necessary to achieve it."
In the Gaza operations, Netanyahu said, Israel wanted "to make sure the firing of rockets stops, but also that the capability to fire future rockets is also stopped".
He declined to comment on what military tactics Israel might use beyond air strikes that have killed nearly 350 Palestinians, including, according to U.N. figures, at least 62 civilians.
Three Israeli civilians and a soldier have been killed by rockets fired from the Gaza Strip since the offensive began, and Israeli forces have massed along the territory's frontier in preparation for a possible invasion.
Netanyahu said Israel has been trying to minimise Palestinian civilian casualties. He accused Hamas of using civilians in the Gaza Strip as "human shields" by placing its rocket launchers and arms caches in heavily populated areas.
Directing his message to the international community, he said: "If you side with Israel today, you will be sending a message to the world, to the terrorists of the world: 'You cannot do this. We will not tolerate it. We will not be duped.'"
