The head of Hamas said the Islamists were "ready" if Israel escalates violence that has seen Palestinian militants fire hundreds of rockets into the Jewish state, which has responded with air strikes. "If (Israel) wants to escalate, we are ready for it, and if it wants to stop, we're also ready," Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's leader who currently lives outside the strip, said in a televised address. az-gl/bs/par