Israel kills Hamas military head

2.30pm

GAZA - Israel has killed the top Hamas military strategist and three other militants in a helicopter missile strike against a car in the Gaza Strip, drawing vows of revenge from the Islamic group.

Ibrahim al-Maqadma, 51, was a founder of Hamas and the most senior Palestinian militant to be killed by Israel in a 29-month-old Palestinian uprising. Tens of thousands marched in his funeral in Gaza City, demanding vengeance.

The strike overshadowed President Yasser Arafat's nomination later on Saturday of Mahmoud Abbas as the first Palestinian prime minister in a step towards major reforms of his Palestinian Authority demanded by international mediators.

Abbas, a senior PLO official and considered a leading moderate, has yet to accept the post. But his appointment could mark a turning point in the uprising, which he has criticised for its use of attacks on Israelis instead of popular protest.

Maqadma was known to be the top commander of Hamas's military apparatus, which has waged a suicide bombing campaign against Israel since the signing of interim peace accords with the Jewish state in 1993.

The group has stepped up suicide attacks since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000 after a deadlock in peace talks on an independent state.

On Saturday, four Israeli helicopter gunships swooped out of the sky and blasted a car in which Maqadma and three other militants were driving, turning it into a smoking heap and scattering body parts along a Gaza road, witnesses said.

Hamas's military wing ordered its cells to take revenge, including killing Israeli political leaders. The Palestinian Authority strongly condemned Maqadma's "assassination" and said it would hold Israel responsible for its consequences.

Israel has killed scores of militants during the uprising, including top leaders such as Hamas military commander Salah Shehada, who worked closely with Maqadma, and the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Ali Mustafa.

More than 70,000 Palestinians marched at Maqadma's funeral in Gaza City, many of them urging Hamas's Izz-el-Deen al-Qassam military wing to carry out revenge attacks. The escalation in Middle East violence has threatened US calls for calm as it seeks support for a strike on Iraq.

"The Qassam brigades will cut off 100 heads in return for the death of our martyr. Our words will soon be translated into action," Hamas supporters chanted through loudspeakers.

"There is a call and an order from Hamas's political leadership to the Qassam brigades to target Israeli leaders," senior Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi told mourners.

Hamas leaders said Maqadma's killing was a major loss. Sources in the group said he was the brains behind its armed wing. Israeli security sources said he had been a leader of the military wing for over two decades.

"They've crossed the red line," said Ismail Haniyah, a senior leader of Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction. "They have opened a new battle field," he said.

Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told Reuters: "We condemn in the strongest possible terms the new assassination in Gaza and we hold the Israeli government fully responsible for the consequences of this act."

ARAFAT NAMES ABBAS PRIME MINISTER

On the political front, Arafat did not set a date for the appointment of Abbas or spell out his powers during a meeting of the Palestine Central Council in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Abbas, known by his nom de guerre Abu Mazen, has said he will accept the job only if he is given significant control over daily affairs in the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man on Saturday in Gaza during a stonethrowing clash. A military source said soldiers fired at a youth who threw a petrol bomb at them.

On Wednesday, a Hamas suicide bomber killed 16 people, including one Israeli who died on Saturday of wounds, on a bus in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

Hours later, 12 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid in Gaza and on Friday Hamas gunmen killed two Jewish settlers when they infiltrated the West Bank settlement Kiryat Arba and opened fire on settlers gathering for prayers.

Shortly afterwards, two Palestinian militants tried to infiltrate the neighbouring Negohot settlement and were killed in a gunbattle with soldiers, the army said. One of the gunmen detonated an explosive belt around his waist, it said.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the Negohot attempt in "revenge for the massacres of Palestinians, especially in Gaza".

At least 1,919 Palestinians and 723 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began.

- REUTERS