Mideast helicopter attacks rack up tension

GAZA - Israeli helicopters fired about 20 missiles at Palestinian targets in the Gaza Strip early yesterday, destroying a security position and wounding three people, Palestinian security officials said.

The missile strikes followed a day of rising tension in which an Israeli was killed in a Palestinian mortar attack in Gaza and thousands of Palestinians vowed revenge for an Israeli missile strike that killed a leader of the militant Hamas group.

The violence was likely to complicate a new United States mission to help end 14 months of regional violence. Former US Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns arrive in the region later today.

An Israeli security source said one Israeli was killed and two wounded in Saturday's apparent mortar attack near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom.

And Palestinian officials said a position belonging to the Palestinian maritime police was destroyed north of Gaza City after Israeli helicopters fired three missiles at it.

Three more missiles hit targets in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, including offices belonging to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, the officials said. Twelve missiles were believed to have struck security positions in Khan Younis in south Gaza.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli Army.

A Palestinian security official said the military action was a "new Israeli aggression" that was pushing the region "to explode".

Tens of thousands of Palestinians attended rallies in the West Bank and Gaza on Saturday, vowing to strike at the heart of Israel to avenge the rocket attack that killed Hamas military leader Mahmoud Abu Hanoud a day earlier.

About 50,000 Palestinians marched from the West Bank city of Jenin to nearby Nablus in a funeral for Hanoud, who Israel accused of involvement in suicide attacks on its citizens.

Mourners in Jenin called on Hamas' military wing, Izz el-Deen al-Qassem, to use booby-trapped cars against Israel.

In Gaza City, more than 10,000 demonstrators, some masked and pumping machine-gun bullets into the air, chanted that their response would be "very soon and very strong".

About 30,000 Palestinians burned Israeli flags and an effigy of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, vowing to "start accumulating Israeli bodies as revenge for Hanoud".

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Israel Radio that Hanoud was a "professional terrorist" planning future attacks and that killing him was an act of self-defence.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo accused Israel of trying to scupper the US peace effort, while France and the Arab League condemned the missile attacks and their timing.

A French Foreign Ministry spokesman in Paris criticised the "particularly inappropriate and irresponsible act ... at a time when parties have been asked to resume dialogue to bring about a ceasefire".

In Cairo, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Israel's killings of Palestinians and other acts of violence constituted "a serious challenge" to the peace initiative.

The Palestinian leadership called on Palestinians to use their "pain and anger as an element for a comprehensive national steadfastness to sabotage this criminal plan".

The attack on Hanoud brought to at least seven the number of Palestinians who died violently on Friday, one day after five boys were killed in an explosion in the Gaza Strip that Palestinian authorities blamed on an Israeli booby-trap.

Israeli officials said they were investigating the incident and expressed regret for their deaths.

The Army said it was checking the "possibility the children were killed due to involvement with an explosive that an Israeli Army force laid".

The Palestinians earlier said the boys kicked an unexploded shell, but public security chief Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh said further investigation showed the children were killed when they hit a booby-trapped device planted by Israeli troops.

Majaydeh said the investigation found that the shrapnel lodged in the boys' bodies was not from a tank shell.

He also said the damage was too great to have been caused by a tank shell and that police stationed nearby reported it had not sounded like a tank shell exploding.

"We had information from witnesses that they had seen an Israeli Army bulldozer working near that area the day before," Majaydeh said.

At least 720 Palestinians and 189 Israelis have been killed since an uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September 2000, shortly after peace talks stalled.

Washington wants calm in the Middle East to bolster Arab support for efforts to capture Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, whom the US blames for September's terrorist attacks on the United States.

Hamas has killed scores of Israelis in suicide bombings in recent years and has played an important role in the uprising.

The Palestinians accuse Israel of assassinating more than 70 Palestinians since the uprising began.

Israel says its policy, widely condemned by its Western allies, is aimed at militants who plan or carry out attacks.

- REUTERS

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