Israel officials have decided to target top Hamas leaders, including founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin. The decision marks a policy change that will likely speed up an attack-revenge cycle that has already claimed 46 lives in four days.

Hamas leaders, who have not been targeted by Israel in the past 32 months of fighting, are now marked for death, according to an Israeli security official. However, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, insisted there was no policy change and that Israel would not target political leaders, unless the leaders have “politics of murder.”

While Israel has killed more than 100 Palestinians in targeted attacks during nearly three years of fighting including many from the Hamas military wing, Israel did not go after top political leaders, possibly fearing a bloody backlash. Hamas issued a statement this week saying that the violence is likely to worsen, and it called on all foreigners to leave Israel.

The attacks this week began with a targeted attack on Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas co-founder and spokesman. Rantisi escaped an Israeli missile strike Wednesday with minor injuries, but his bodyguard and a bystander were killed. In response, a Hamas suicide bomber killed 17 people and wounded more than 70 in a Jerusalem bus attack a day later.

In return, Israel carried out three more missile strikes that killed five Hamas operatives and commanders, along with 13 bystanders, in Gaza City. The attacks wounded about 70 people.

The bloodshed has been some of the worst in months and has imperiled the Middle East peace plan formally launched just last week at a summit meeting in Jordan. However, Secretary of State Colin Powell will still meet in Jordan next week with other members of the so-called “Quartet” of Mideast mediators – the European Union, United Nations, and Russia to discuss the peace process.

***

Iranians demanded change by taking to the streets for three days this week in the biggest protests in months. On Wednesday, some 3,000 protestors heeded a call from U.S.-based Iranian exile satellite television and gathered near the Tehran University in support of a smaller, student protest against proposed privatizations in higher education.

About 80 rioters were arrested on Wednesday, but the protestors were not fazed and continued to chant slogans against the powerful Muslim clerics. Iran’s supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused the United States of trying to create disorder and warned protestors that the government would be merciless against those acting in the interests of foreign powers. However, the public ignored his statements and staged the largest street demonstrations in the capital in four years.

The demonstrations on Friday caused traffic jams, stretching three miles from the dormitories where the first quiet protests began on Tuesday. Friday’s protest was wider than the protests on the two previous nights and the government is likely to use force to prevent protests from erupting again.

High unemployment and frustration with Iran’s strict Islamic laws have fed discontent among the overwhelmingly youthful population, around 70 percent of which is under 30 and has little memory of life before the revolution. While most believe that resolution from the inside of Iran would be the best situation, some also call for foreign intervention.

***

This week the State Department released its annual report to track the progress of foreign governments in combating international trafficking. Each year 800,000 to 900,000 people worldwide are taken across borders to work against their will. Of those, 18,000 to 20,000 are trafficked into the United States. Some victims are forced to work as prostitutes, while others labor in sweatshops or work as maids and housekeepers.

While Mexico remained on the list for the third straight year, it did not fall into the bottom category of the world’s 15 worst-ranked countries, who may be denied certain U.S. aid. The 15 worst-ranked countries were Belize, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burma, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Georgia, Greece, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Liberia, North Korea, Sudan, Suriname, Turkey and Uzbekistan.