JERUSALEM - Two car bomb blasts near Tel Aviv's airport yesterday and an Israeli helicopter gunship attack that killed three Palestinian militants in the West Bank dealt further blows to a fragile United States-brokered ceasefire.
The violence was likely to delay even further the beginning of a seven-day test period of
calm brokered during a Middle East visit last week by US Secretary of State Colin Powell as a starting point for a US truce-to-peacemaking plan.
Israeli police said four people were treated for shock after explosives planted in two cars blew up in the town of Yehud, near Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport.
"I can confirm that these were two terrorist incidents," a police spokeswoman said. Both blasts damaged nearby cars and buildings.
Against the backdrop of the upsurge in violence and a weekend of hostilities along the Israel-Lebanon border, the Israeli Army announced that its chief of staff, Shaul Mofaz, was cutting short a US visit and returning home.
Breaking an official silence, Israeli military sources confirmed Palestinian reports that a military helicopter was used yesterday to assassinate Mohammed Besharat, an Islamic militant who was high on Israel's most-wanted list.
Palestinian officials urged the US and Europe to condemn the West Bank attack and accused Israel of trying to foil international efforts to end nine months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
"The Israeli Air Force attacked Mohammed Besharat, a terrorist belonging to the Hamas organisation, while he was in his car in the area of [the West Bank city of] Jenin," a military source said.
The strike, which also killed two other Palestinian militants in the vehicle, "undoubtedly foiled a terrorist attack against Israeli citizens inside Israel," the source said.
Palestinian officials said the helicopter fired at least six missiles at the car, turning it into a blackened pile of metal, and killed Besharat, Sameh Nuri Abu Hameish and Walid Sudki Besharat.
On another front, Israel sent warplanes to attack Syrian positions in Lebanon, wounding at least three soldiers.
- REUTERS
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