An unnamed senior US State Department official said on Saturday that the United States gave no green light for Israel to kill Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi,the CNN reported.

The United States "certainly did not give Israel any kind of green light" to kill Rantisi and Washington "did not have any kindof advance knowledge" of the operation, the official said.

The official also asked Israel to bear in mind the consequencesof its actions, the official told CNN.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei has said that Israel's assassination of Rantisi was a "direct result" of the US support for Israel.

Rantisi, who was appointed to head Hamas after the group's founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was killed last month in an Israeli missile strike, was killed by an Israeli helicopter rocket attack in Gaza City earlier Saturday.

The United States has labeled Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Source: Xinhua