"Our reply will be very severe and we will continue our resistance in spite of the campaign of assassinations" by Israel, Ismail Hanyeh told AFP at the funeral of Adnan al-Ghoul, a leader of the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing.

More than 10,000 people had already turned out for the funeral of Ghoul, 47, killed by rockets along with an aide in an Israeli helicopter air strike in the Gaza Strip late Thursday.

The army said Ghoul was the leading Hamas figure responsible for the development and the production of Qassam rockets, which have been fired at southern Israeli towns just across the Gaza border over the past months.