Posted on 08/21/2003 5:36:55 AM PDT by SkyPilot
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel killed a senior Hamas official in a missile strike on Thursday, retaliating for a Hamas suicide bombing in Jerusalem. The Islamic militant group threatened revenge and said it is formally abandoning a truce it declared eight weeks ago.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas warned that the killing of the Hamas official, Ismail Abu Shanab, is undermining his planned campaign against Palestinian militants. The Palestinian leadership had decided on the clampdown just hours earlier, under intense U.S. pressure.
Abu Shanab was riding in his gold-colored station wagon,(way to blend in) along with two bodyguards, in Gaza City on Thursday when the vehicle was hit by five missiles fired from an Israeli helicopter. The car burst into flames and three bodies were pulled from the wreckage. Fifteen bystanders were hurt.
Dozens of Hamas supporters at the scene dunked their fists in blood and soot, raised them in the air and threatened revenge, chanting "God is great."
Israel has routinely targeted members of Hamas' military wing, but has rarely gone after the group's political leaders. Abu Shanab, a U.S.-educated professor of engineering, was the third member of Hamas' political wing to be killed in a targeted attack in the past two years. Israel says the distinction is not valid, and that Hamas political leaders are involved in the planning of attacks.
"There's no question that there is a direct link between the heads of Hamas and the terrorists on the ground," said Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir, though he would not say explicitly that Israel killed Abu Shanab.
Hamas formally called off a three-month unilateral cease-fire it declared June 29. "We consider ourselves no longer bound by this cease-fire," said a Hamas leader, Ismail Hanieh, after identifying Abu Shanab's decapitated body at a Gaza City morgue.
Hamas had carried out two suicide bombings under the umbrella of the cease-fire, including the Jerusalem bus attack that killed 20 people on Tuesday, but had insisted these were pinpoint retaliations for deadly Israeli raids and not violations of the truce.
Abbas warned the missile strike would hamper the planned crackdown. "This for sure will affect the whole (peace) process and the decision taken (last night) by the Palestinian Authority he said. Earlier Thursday, he had met with a U.S. envoy, John Wolf, to discuss the next moves.
Israel had suspended targeted killings during the unilateral cease-fire, but the Israeli security Cabinet decided late Wednesday to renew the practice, in response to the Jerusalem bombing, the deadliest since the launch of a U.S.-backed peace plan three months ago. More than 100 people were wounded in the blast, including about 40 children.
After taking office in April, Abbas had shied away from confrontation with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and armed renegades in his own Fatah movement, saying he feared internal fighting.
However, after the Jerusalem bombing, there was mounting pressure, with the United States demanding an immediate crackdown. "There's funding, there's support, there's munitions, there's organization, and all that needs to be taken apart," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
In a first step, Abbas ordered the arrest of all those directly involved in the bombing, and then asked his Cabinet for proposals on a wider clampdown. The ideas raised in the Cabinet meeting, including arrests, a gag order on Hamas and Islamic Jihad spokesmen and the freezing of assets of militant groups, were taken to Yasser Arafat and top PLO officials for approval late Wednesday.
The meeting, which lasted until early Thursday, was at times stormy. Abbas had told his ministers earlier that he would resign if he did not get Arafat's full support for taking action against Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but it was not clear whether he did make the threat in Arafat's presence.
In the end, Abbas and Arafat agreed on a joint statement which said the Palestinian Authority would enforce the rule of law, take control of illegal weapons and end "military displays" by the militants, a reference to marches led by gunmen.
The Palestinian leadership statement did not refer to arrests, which would appear to be a cornerstone of any crackdown, but Palestinian officials said there would be detentions.
"It's a campaign that even in the worst nightmares Hamas and Islamic Jihad never imagined," said Elias Zananiri, a spokesman for Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan, speaking before the missile strike. "There's a list of people to be arrested."
Israeli troops, meanwhile, raided the West Bank towns of Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarem in search of militants. Since the spring of 2002, when Israel reoccupied most of the West Bank, troops have been moving in and out of Palestinian towns repeatedly to arrested wanted men.
The biggest operation was carried out in the Casbah, or old city, of Nablus, a militant stronghold where troops were looking for Hamas militants and Fatah renegades responsible for two bombings that killed two Israelis earlier this month.
Troops sealed off the old city with armored vehicles and barbed wire and ordered residents out of homes to search buildings. Soldiers took over several buildings as outposts, suggesting a longer stay. They arrested 14 Palestinians in and around Nablus during the night, including a Hamas member caught with a large quantity of explosives, the army and witnesses said.
In the town of Tulkarem, Israeli undercover troops chasing two Fatah gunmen raided a local pool hall, but the fugitives managed to escape. The soldiers opened fire during the chase, killing a 16-year-old bystander and wounding four, all under the age of 20, Palestinian security officials said. The Israeli military said there was a gunbattle.
A third raid targeted the town of Jenin and an adjacent refugee camp, a stronghold of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militant group loosely linked to Fatah. No arrests were made.
In the West Bank city Hebron, troops blew up the home of the Jerusalem bus bomber, a routine punishment intended as deterrent.
Sharon warned that if the Palestinian Authority "does not take all the necessary steps in the war against terror, real and substantial steps, it will not be possible to advance on the diplomatic track."
"Dude, where's my car?"
| Thu Aug 21, 8:07 AM ET | 3 of 228 |
|
|
Stupid is as stupid does.
More Yahoo photos all to do with this IDF missile strike
Palestinians shout slogans as they stand atop the wreckage of the car belonging to senior Hamas official Ismail Abu Shanab in Gaza city Thursday Aug. 21, 2003. An Israeli helicopter fired five missiles at the car killing Shanab and two of his bodyguards. The missile strike comes two days after a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up on a Jerusalem bus, killing 20 people. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Hamas supporters chant anti-Israeli slogans after an Israeli helicopter missile strike on a car in Gaza City, August 21, 2003. Israel killed a political leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas in the attack on Thursday following a suicide bombing in Israel that killed 20 people and shattered a seven-week-old ceasefire. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
The mob couldn't care less about the hamas leader... They're trying to get the battery out of the car.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
