Exiled Hamas leader in Syria Khaled Meshaal on Wednesday called for a formation of international war criminal tribunal against Israeli officials with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on top of the list.

Meshaal made the appeal here at a press conference after Israeli tank shells struck houses in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least 18 Palestinians and wounding dozens of others.

Meshaal, politburo chief of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas), condemned the attack as "massacre" and vowed to retaliate, saying "our condemnation will not be in words but in deeds, the resistance will respond".

At the sametime, he called on all Palestinian resistance factions to work together against the Israeli crimes.

Source: Xinhua