Israel's war on militants

Israel has killed more than 150 militants in targeted raids since fighting broke out in September 2000, according to Palestinian medical officials, though that total includes militants killed resisting arrest.

Some of the most prominent and recent strikes:

February 1973: Israeli commandos enter Beirut by sea and kill three senior PLO leaders. One of the commandos was Ehud Barak, later Israel's Prime Minister.

January 1979: Israeli agents kill Ali Hassan Salameh in bomb explosion in Beirut. Salameh planned the 1972 attack in Munich that killed 11 members of Israeli Olympic team.

February 1992: Lebanese Hizbollah leader Sheik Abbas Musawi killed in southern Lebanon in Israeli helicopter strike.

October 1995: Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shakaki killed by gunmen in Malta. Israel was assumed to be responsible but does not comment officially.

January 1996: Hamas master bombmaker Yehiyeh Ayyash killed in explosion of booby-trapped cellphone in Gaza. Israel assumed to be responsible.

January 2002: Raed Karmi, leader of Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the West Bank, killed in Israeli attack.

July 2002: Hamas commander Salah Shehadeh killed with 14 others when Israeli plane drops one-tonne bomb on his Gaza house.

June 2003: Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi wounded in Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

August 21, 2003: Three Hamas members, including prominent leader Ismail Abu Shanab and two bodyguards, killed by helicopter missile strike. One bystander killed, 15 wounded.

December 25, 2003: Five Palestinians killed in a Gaza rocket attack aimed at top Islamic Jihad leader Mekled Hameid. Hameid, two other Jihad militants and two bystanders killed.

February 7, 2004: Two Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, die in a missile strike against an Islamic Jihad target in the Gaza Strip.

February 28, 2004: Three Islamic Jihad militants die in an Israeli missile attack in the Gaza Strip.

March 3, 2004: Three Hamas militants killed in a missile attack on their car southwest of Gaza City.