Israeli air strike kills Islamic Jihad commander

JERUSALEM - An Israeli air strike last night destroyed a white Mercedes car on the coastal road in a suburb of Gaza City, killing at least two passengers and wounding four others.

The dead were Mohammed al Sheikh Halil, an Islamic Jihad commander, and one of his assistants. Mr Halil had escaped a previous Israeli assassination attempt.

A military spokesman accused him of being "responsible for murderous terror attacks." He added that the armed forces would "continue to act with determination" to defend Israeli citizens.

This latest escalation came at the end of the most violent two days since Israel completed its evacuation two weeks ago - and an hour before Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister, was due to fight for his political future with a speech to the rebellious Likud central committee.

Earlier yesterday cannons deployed on the Israeli side of the Gaza border fired warnings shots into an open field and a single F-16 warplane broke the sound barrier over the strip.

On Saturday, three air strikes killed four Hamas gunmen in retaliation for a barrage of 40 Qassam rockets launched at the Western Negev town of Sderot. The targets included an empty Hamas school, which Israel said was used for military training.

In overnight raids across the West Bank, Israeli security forces arrested 207 military and political leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The border was closed and police went on high alert in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv and other cities to ward off potential suicide bombers.

For the time being, the Israeli sabre-rattling seemed to have given the Palestinians pause. In Gaza many residents prudently stayed home. Before the naval attack, a local journalist described the streets as "unnaturally quiet." Hamas withdrew into its shell.

Mr Sharon ordered the armed forces to stop the rocket attacks by hitting the militias, their equipment and their bases with all available means.

"We intend to act continuously in order to strike at the terrorists," he told his cabinet yesterday, "and we will not spare the appropriate measures for this, apart from our usual objective of not hitting civilians."

The cabinet approved a plan by Shaul Mofaz, the Defence Minister, to create a buffer zone in Northern Gaza to keep the rocket launchers out of range of Israeli towns and villages.

Dan Naveh, a hawkish Likud minister, urged the army to "attack targets there without mercy."

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, ordered his security forces to stop Hamas and other dissidents breaking the threadbare ceasefire agreed with Mr Sharon last February.

He also banned the militias from displaying their weapons in populated areas after a vehicle in a Hamas "victory" parade blew up in the Jabaliya refugee camp on Friday, killing 19 people and wounding dozens more.

Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority denied Hamas claims that it had been hit by an Israeli missile.

The test now is whether Mr Abbas' forces have the will or the capacity to impose law and order.

So far, the signs have not been encouraging on either front. Sa'eb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, warned that the situation could deteriorate.

"We're going to stop the rocket firings", he pledged. "To maintain the ceasefire is essential for both parties."

In Ramallah, Mr Abbas hinted that the summit with Mr Sharon, planned for next Sunday, might have to be postponed.

He told reporters that more preparation was necessary if the meeting was to succeed.

Britain, as the rotating president of the European Union, yesterday called on the Palestinian Authority to "take all necessary steps to take full control of security in the Gaza Strip."

It called on Israel to exercise restraint, while recognising its right to act in self-defence.

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