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<p>July 28, 2002 -- ISRAEL is taking a pounding for having killed civilians in its successful strike Tuesday on Hamas terror-leader Sheik Salah Shehada in Gaza.</p> <p>But just how "innocent" were those civilians?</p> <p>No - no one's suggesting that any of them personally took part in terror attacks against Israelis (not that it would be all that surprising if some had).</p>

w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m Peres says Shehada bombing was '100 percent mistake' HAMBURG - Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Saturday that the IDF assassination of Hamas leader Salah Shehada's house in Gaza overnight Monday was a "100 percent mistake." "Yes it was a miscalculation, one hundred percent a mistake. The outcome shows clearly we used the wrong weapon. The bomb caused more harm than good," Peres told the German news magazine Der Spiegel, in an interview released ahead of publication on Saturday. "Mistakes...

Last update - 22:25 27/07/2002 Senior Hamas official says Shehada replacement appointed By Itim Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a senior Hamas member in the Gaza Strip, announced over the weekend that the organization had appointed a new leader for its Iz a Din al-Kassam military wing, in place of Salah Shehada, who was assassinated in an Israeli strike last Monday. Rantisi, who did not reveal the identity of the new military wing leader, made the remarks at a Hamas gathering on Friday. The gathering took place at the site of the attack, in which Shehada and 14 others were killed....

The Bush administration has expressed angst with Israel over its rocket attack earlier this week on a building that housed Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh, but a May interview with the slain militant goes a long way toward explaining why the Israeli military may have acted. The White House said the July 23 attack utilized an inappropriate amount of force, while Israeli officials defended an F-16 missile strike that killed Shehadeh and 14 others – including nine children – as an act of war that likely saved "hundreds" of Israeli lives. The Hamas leader was targeted by Israel because of his...

Ben-Eliezer: Killed Hamas leader was preparing 'mega attack' By Yossi Verter, Ha'aretz Correspondent and Agencies Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Thursday that Hamas military commander Salah Shehada, killed in the IAF's Gaza strike on Monday, was in the midst of preparing "a mega terror attack." Speaking at a meeting at the Labor Party's central headquarters in Beit Berl, Ben-Eliezer said that Shehada planned to infiltrate one ton of explosives into Israel "which could shock the whole nation or kill hundreds." Ben-Eliezer said that he postponed the assassination operation eight times during the past two months, including last Friday. "The plane...

As the world continues to criticize Israel for its killing of arch-terrorist Salah Shehada in his hideout amidst a crowded residential area in Gaza, the IDF released a report today detailing some of Shehada's recent murderous activities. He was a founder of Hamas, the commander and central figure in its military wing, directly responsible for hundreds of attacks committed against Israelis, and known to be planning further severe acts of terror. Arutz-7's Uzi Baruch notes that Salah Shehada was a man who combined a social work career with ordering and helping to arrange the murder of hundreds of Israelis. Only...

Amidst international criticism, Israel reviews decisions leading to Gaza strike By Ellis Shuman July 24, 2002 The Bush administration added its voice to a wave of scathing international criticism against Israel's air strike in Gaza yesterday, which killed Hamas militant leader Salah Shehada, and fourteen other Palestinians, including nine children. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who originally described the strike as a "great success," afterwards indicated that if he had known civilians had been present, he would not have approved the attack. "This heavy-handed action does not contribute to peace," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. Fleischer dismissed any parallels between...

<p>July 24, 2002 -- THERE'S no ambiguity regarding the responsibility for the horrible deaths incurred by the Israeli attack on one of the world's worst terrorists. The responsibility lies with the dead terrorist himself, Salah Shehada, and with the evildoing gang called Hamas that he helped to start and run.</p>

July 24, 2002 -- JERUSALEM - Only a few hours after Israeli intelligence pinpointed the whereabouts of its most wanted terrorist, an Israeli air force jet delivered a "perfect hit" on his lair - with a 1-ton "smart" bomb, officials said yesterday. The lightning-quick "targeted killing" of the elusive Hamas leader Salah Shehada was carried out Monday night by a pilot so skilled and with equipment so sophisticated that he could put the powerful explosive "through the left side of a window or through the right side if he had to," former air force Brig. Gen. Ran Peker said. But...

<p>July 24, 2002 -- JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday hailed the dramatic assassination of Hamas' military commander as one of Israel's greatest military moves, while backers of the terror chief vowed revenge.</p> <p>"This operation was in my view one of our biggest successes," Sharon told his Cabinet ministers a day after an Israel fighter flattened the home of Salah Shehada with a 1-ton bomb. "We hit perhaps the most senior Hamas figure on the operational side."</p>

<p>The War on Terror scored a huge victory early yesterday when an Israeli missile took out the operative head of a U.S.-certified terrorist group.</p> <p>Yes, some 14 civilians also died in the attack, which is a shame.</p> <p>But Sheik Salah Shehada was the commander of terrorist operations for Hamas; Israeli officials called him the Osama bin Laden of Hamas - and his demise was at the top of their "To Do" list.</p>