Israel killed two Palestinian militant commanders in a missile strike on Tuesday as it pressed a deadly air campaign in Gaza following a suicide bombing and rocket fire in the Jewish state.
The militant Islamic group Hamas vowed that Israel would "pay a dear price" after aircraft destroyed a car in the Jabalya refugee camp, a militant stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip.
The air strike continued a week of Israeli-Palestinian violence, the worst flare-up since a truce was declared eight months ago, that has deflated hopes that Israel’s Gaza pullout in September would revive peacemaking.
Fawzi Abu al-Qarea, leader of Hamas’ armed wing in the camp, and Hassan al-Madhoun, a top al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander, were killed in the blast, witnesses said.
The two men were traveling in a car with a red Palestinian Authority security license plate, the witnesses said. The air strike came just minutes after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in the coastal territory.
Numerous strikes
Over the past week, Israel has carried out numerous strikes against militants in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, killing 13 Palestinians, most of them gunmen.
The Israeli attacks followed a suicide bombing that killed five people in Israel and cross-border rocket attacks mounted by the Islamic Jihad group, which said on Sunday it would halt launches if Israeli raids stopped.
In a policy speech on Monday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon demanded the Palestinian Authority “wage a real war on terror” before peace talks can resume in the wake of the Gaza pullout, which was completed on September 12 after 38 years of occupation.
Abbas has urged militants not to carry their weapons in public but has resisted U.S. and Israeli calls to disarm them, citing fears of civil war.
Hamas had largely stayed on the sidelines in the latest outbreak but had been behind sporadic rocket fire into southern Israel since the Israeli pullout.
“The enemy will regret this,” Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said after Tuesday’s strike. “We will not stand handcuffed.”
The Israeli military said it had targeted the al Aqsa leader and made no mention of the Hamas commander.
PA condemns bombardment
“I condemn the continuation of the bombardment of Gaza,” Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said. “It serves no interests. This is political blindness.”
“We are exerting maximum efforts to get all the factions to comply with the cessation of violence against Israelis. And now this comes. It is like pouring oil on the fire,” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Sharon’s inner cabinet approved a proposal for a crossing to let Palestinians come and go between Egypt and Gaza.
The decision, following U.S. pressure, was an important step toward freeing access to the Gaza Strip, seen internationally as vital for translating Israel’s pullout from the occupied territory into a new chance for peacemaking.
