Israeli air strike kills Hamas leader and family

GAZA, Gaza Strip - An Israeli missile strike killed a senior Hamas militant, his wife and 3-year-old daughter in the Gaza Strip this morning amid a surge of blood-letting that has plunged US-led peace efforts into turmoil.

The helicopter attack, which killed seven people in all, was launched after a Palestinian suicide bombing killed 16 on a Jerusalem bus and Israeli air raids killed 11 in the Gaza Strip Thursday, one of the bloodiest days in months of conflict.

An Israeli security source said today's strike followed an order from the Defence Ministry for the army "to use everything they have" against Hamas, which had claimed responsibility for the bus bombing and vowed further attacks.

Helicopters fired six missiles into Gaza City, reducing a Subaru car to charred metal. The last missile exploded among bystanders who rushed from a nearby mosque, injuring more than 40 of them, witnesses said.

A 3-year-old toddler, unconscious and burned, was rushed into Gaza's Shifa hospital and died there, medical officials said. People filled the streets shouting for revenge. A baby bottle and child's shoes were pulled from the wreckage.

Palestinian sources identified the dead militant as Yasser Taha, a senior member of Hamas's military wing wanted by Israel, and said his wife and daughter had been in the car with him.

"This targeted killing is just the beginning," the Israeli security source said.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed at an emergency cabinet meeting to press ahead with attacks against Hamas, an Islamic group dedicated to Israel's destruction.

After the missile strike, senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar vowed that the group would strike back. "These are killers of children, women innocent people ... Let us wait who is going to destroy the other."

Hamas earlier had warned foreigners to leave Israel for their own safety.


The missile strike came after Sharon ratcheted up the rhetoric Thursday amid growing doubts about a US-led peace "road map" that the two sides have done little to implement.

The peace plan calls for an end to violence leading to creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.

"(Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas) is a chick without feathers. We have to help him fight terror until his feathers grow," a source quoted Sharon telling an emergency meeting of his right-wing cabinet.

Sharon, criticising Abbas for failing to rein in militants as mandated by the road map, described Palestinian leaders as "crybabies who let terror run rampant," the source said.

Asked about Sharon's comments, Palestinian cabinet minister Ziad Abu Amr said the Israeli leader was "throwing out silly descriptions and silly allegations" to cover up his failure to seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Palestinian officials have said Israeli military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have made it impossible for weakened Palestinian security forces to move against militants.

Hamas, which opposes the road map, broke off cease-fire talks with Abbas last Friday, accusing him of making too many concessions to Israel at a June 4 peace summit in Jordan with Sharon and President Bush.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Washington he had spoken by phone to Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom today to say "we have to keep moving forward, that it would be a disaster if we lost this opportunity."

But Israel's vows to pursue militants and promises of attacks by Hamas -- which struck after missiles fired by an Israeli helicopter in Gaza City wounded one of its senior leaders, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, Wednesday -- bode ill for peace.

- REUTERS