Prime Minister Ariel Sharon threatened Mr Yasser Arafat in a series of newspaper interviews published today and said the Palestinian president "has no insurance policy".
Mr Sharon went on his strongest verbal offensive against Mr Arafat in months while defending himself in comments to Israel's biggest newspapers against allegations of corruption that could topple him and pledging to proceed with a Gaza pullback plan.
"Arafat has no insurance policy," Mr Sharon told the Maarivdaily. In similar remarks to the Yedioth Ahronothnewspaper, he included Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbullah, in the warning.
"Everyone already knows that Arafat is an obstacle to any progress," Mr Sharon, interviewed ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover, told Maariv.
Israel's government declared last September that Mr Arafat should be "removed" and several cabinet ministers have called for his expulsion or death.
But Mr Sharon has acknowledged he has promised the United States not to harm Mr Arafat, regarded by Palestininians as a symbol of their struggle for statehood.
Mr Arafat, who has been holed up for two years in his battered headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, has strongly denied Israel's allegations of having supported a wave of attacks in the past three years of conflict against Israelis.