Israelis kill four Hamas fighters in Gaza ( 2003-08-25 09:08) (Agencies)
Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a group of armed men sitting near the
Gaza City beach Sunday, killing four Hamas fighters, including a fugitive
commander, just hours after Israel's army chief said Hamas militants were
targets for "liquidation."
Israeli soldiers patrol the West
Bank city of Nablus, August 24,
2003. [Reuters]
The attack occurred
just 200 yards from the office of Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan.
"Israel has no choice but act in those areas where the Palestinians are
failing to do so," said Gideon Meir, a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official.
Israel's army chief said only hours earlier that all members of the Islamic
militant group are "potential targets for liquidation." Sunday's attack came
three days after Israel killed Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab in a similar
strike in retaliation for a Hamas bombing that killed 21 people, including five
Americans, on a Jerusalem bus.
Palestinian police officers search around
the entrance of a tunnel going under the border between the Gaza
Strip and Egypt in Rafah refugee camp Sunday, Aug. 24 2003.
[AP]
Palestinian officials said Sunday's attack would undermine a planned
Palestinian security clampdown that began Saturday with moves against arms
smugglers, casting fresh doubt on an already shaky U.S.-backed peace plan. That
so-called "road map" envisions a Palestinian state by 2005.
"This aims to sabotage the efforts that began last night," said Saeb Erakat,
a senior Palestinian lawmaker. "It's very obvious that the Israeli government is
acting as if the Palestinian Authority is something from the past."
One witness, Shadi Wassi, said he was about to enter his house "when suddenly
a huge explosion shook the ground under my feet. When I looked back, I saw a big
flame burning the trees, then another two huge explosions hit the area."
Other witnesses said the men were sitting near the beach for about half an
hour when the missiles hit.
Bystanders carried the bloodied body of one man to an ambulance, as the
helicopters fired flares. Onlookers holding cigarette lighters searched the
ground to gather pieces of flesh from the sand.
Hamas identified the dead men as fighters Ahmed Aishtawi, Wahid Hamas, Ahmad
Aub Helal and Mohammed Abu Lubda.
An Israeli military official said on condition of anonymity that Aishtawi,
24, was the main target, describing him as a senior operative who planned and
committed attacks in Gaza and the West Bank.
Palestinians carry a body to the hospital
of one of four people killed by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City on
August 24, 2003. A senior militant from Hamas' armed Izz-el-Deen al-Qassam
wing was among four Palestinians killed in the Israel helicopter strike,
his relatives said. [Reuters]
A Hamas spokesman said Aishtawi led a unit that pioneered the firing of
homemade missiles and specialized in hitting tanks.
Aishtawi's 21-year-old brother, Hussam, said, "I am sad because I lost my
brother, but I am happy because he became a martyr. I will follow in his
footsteps."
The military strike came as Palestinian leaders were locked in a power
struggle over command of their security forces.
The crisis between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his rival,
U.S.-backed Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, was triggered by Arafat's refusal to
relinquish control of security forces as demanded by the United States in a push
to dismantle armed groups.
It appears unlikely Arafat will back down since his authority would be
considerably weakened if he gives up command over security. He controls several
key security branches, while Abbas controls the rest.
Abbas and his security chief, Dahlan, have said they need control over all
men under arms to confront Hamas, the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group and
renegades in their own Fatah movement. Arafat stalled when asked to
support such a crackdown after last week's bus bombing, which killed six
children.
Several members of Fatah's Central Committee have proposed appointing Gen.
Nasser Yousef, a longtime Arafat loyalist, as overall commander of security
forces.
Arafat said he didn't mind appointing Yousef as Dahlan's boss, but balked at
relinquishing control, several committee members said.
Israel has accused Arafat of involvement in terrorism, and the United States
has ignored him for months, seeking instead to work with Abbas, who was
appointed in April under U.S. pressure.
Abbas on Sunday stood by Dahlan, and said he will not resign as security
chief.
As the Palestinian wrangling continued, Israel intensified its hunt for
militants, killing Shanab on Thursday and sending troops and tanks into West
Bank towns.
"Every member of Hamas is a potential target for liquidation," Israeli army
chief Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon said Sunday in the first public comment by a senior
defense official on Israel's new policy, adopted after Tuesday's bus bombing.
In the past three years of fighting, Israel has killed scores of wanted
militants in targeted attacks — the Palestinians call them assassinations — but
rarely has gone after Hamas political leaders. Abu Shanab was the most senior
Hamas leader killed in a missile strike.
Hamas remained defiant after Sunday's missile strike.
"If the Israelis thought assassinations would destroy our determination to
continue in our resistance, to continue defending ourselves, they are mistaken,"
Hamas spokesman Ismail Haniya said. "We will move ahead whatever the sacrifice."
Also Sunday, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed about four miles
from the Israeli city of Ashkelon, about 10 yards from an unmanned lifeguard
post. It was the deepest a Palestinian rocket has struck in Israel in recent
memory, the army said.
Dahlan's forces, meanwhile, continued arresting weapons smugglers in the Gaza
Strip, seizing weapons and detaining at least 15 suspects in a sweep begun late
Saturday. Security forces said they sealed off six tunnels used to smuggle
weapons from Egypt.
Israeli security officials dismissed the Palestinian raids as fiction and
affirmed that Israel will continue acting against militants, a security source
said Sunday.
In the West Bank city of Nablus, the Israeli army said it uncovered a bomb
lab Sunday, blowing up the site where they found a 176-pound bomb and
bomb-making materials.
