Tel Aviv  -  Widespread international efforts against Iran's nuclear programme mean Tehran will not have nuclear capability, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in remarks published Thursday.

"There is a powerful international effort that is geared toward preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear state," he said in interviews with the Israeli media to mark the Passover holiday, which begins on Saturday night.

"I can tell the citizens of Israel ... that, to the best of my understanding, on the basis of everything that I know and have read, I believe that the effort by the international community, which includes every relevant means, will succeed and Iran will not become a nuclear power," he continued.

Olmert described the fighting in and around the Gaza Strip, between Israel and Palestinian militias, as "a daily war."

"We are operating and we will operate against terrorism; in the last year we killed more than 200 terrorists," he said. "We consider Hamas (which administers the Gaza Strip) to be directly and fully responsible for all occurrences in the Gaza Strip and we will extract the price from it."

Israel killed 20 Palestinians in the Strip on Wednesday, in pursuit of groups launching rockets at southern Israel, and in an air strike which hit two houses in the al-Bureij refugee camp. Three Israeli soldiers were also killed. (dpa)