Sharon crows over Hamas man's slaying

GAZA - Israel killed the commander of the military wing of Hamas, 14 other Palestinians, including eight children and wounded at least 145 others in an air attack in the Gaza Strip yesterday.

Salah Shehada was killed one day after the head of Hamas said it would consider halting suicide attacks on Israelis if Israel withdrew from West Bank cities and took other measures.

Shehada was head of the Islamic movement's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades, which have killed dozens of Israelis in suicide attacks since the start of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon described the airstrike by an Israeli F-16 on the teeming neighbourhood as a "great success" but said he regretted deaths of civilians.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat told the BBC the attack was a "despicable" war crime meant to stifle diplomacy.

"In my opinion this is Sharon's effort to torpedo any effort to revive the peace process," he said.

Sharon said Israel must be on full alert for reprisals and Hamas vowed revenge, raising the possibility of another welter of violence - after a month of relative calm - endangering a fragile new dialogue between Israel and Palestinian moderates.

The Gaza assault marked an escalation of Israel's military effort to quell a Palestinian revolt led by suicide bombers.

Officials at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital confirmed 11 people - two babies, six children and three adults - were killed and at least 145 others wounded in the overnight strike, which demolished five houses in the Baraj residential district.

The youngest killed was aged two months and 15 of the wounded were in serious condition, doctors said.

They did not identify Shehada among the victims. Hamas sources said his body had not been found, but said he, his wife, daughter and deputy were believed to have been in their home, now flattened, and they were all considered dead.

Confusion had reigned over Shehada's fate, with Hamas initially saying he had been killed, then that he was alive, but he did not appear before emotional crowds in Gaza.

Dazed residents stumbled through the dust and debris, looking for loved ones as ambulance sirens wailed. Children were rushed away on stretchers through the crowds.

Residents and rescue teams continued to comb the wreckage yesterday for people who might still be trapped.

"This is a massacre against our people," said Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, a senior Hamas spokesman.

"Retaliation is coming and everything is considered a target," he said. "Hamas' retaliation will come very soon, and there won't be only just one [attack] ... After this crime, even Israelis in their homes will be the target of our operations".

Israel described the attack as self-defence against Palestinian suicide bomber networks.

In a statement confirming the air raid, the Israeli Army said: "Shehada was behind hundreds of terrorist attacks over the past two years against the Israeli military and Israeli civilians in Israel."

But the civilian casualties drew swift condemnation by the United Nations and a Palestinian cabinet minister said it battered new hopes for steps to revive a peace process raised by the resumption of limited talks this month.

Israeli troops reoccupied much of the West Bank last month after suicide attacks killed 26 Israelis and the talks focused on easing the economic and humanitarian plight of 700,000 Palestinians under army curfew and blockades.

UN chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said Israel had a legal and moral responsibility to to avoid the loss of innocent life.

"It clearly failed to do so in using a missile against an apartment building. Secretary-General [Kofi Annan] calls on the Government of Israel to halt such actions and conduct itself in a manner fully consistent with international humanitarian law."

Asked about Eckhard's statement, Gideon Meir, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that Israeli children have been killed in Palestinian suicide bombings.

"I do expect the Secretary-General to understand that Israel's actions come out of self-defence. This was a precise Israeli air strike against a known terrorist responsible for hundreds of attacks on innocent Israelis in the past few years."

- REUTERS

Feature: Middle East

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