Thousands in Gaza celebrate Jerusalem attack

11.45am

GAZA - About 10,000 Palestinians handed out sweets, sang songs and chanted anti-Israeli slogans as they marched through Gaza city on Wednesday to celebrate the bombing that killed seven people at Jerusalem's Hebrew University.

The rally was organised by the Islamic movement Hamas, which said it carried out the attack to avenge an Israeli air strike on Gaza last week that killed its military commander Salah Shehada and 14 others, including nine children.

"The price of the Israeli crime to assassinate the leader Salah Shehada is more than 100 Israeli soldiers and that will come in 10 martyrs' operations (suicide attacks)," the military wing of Hamas, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades, said in a statement read through a loudspeaker.

"We give this gift to the soul of Sheikh Salah Shehada and we say to the al-Qassam brigades we are waiting for more," a voice shouted through a loudspeaker.

Hamas regards most Israelis as soldiers because most are conscripted at the age of 18 and serve annually in military reserve units.

The marchers walked past one of Shehada's family's homes and many knelt and prayed for revenge. They described Wednesday's bombing as "a gift to the soul" of Shehada and "a march of joy".

The marchers waved Hamas flags and included a large number of children who clapped and laughed. Palestinians often hand out sweets in such celebration marches.

In the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus, dozens of people staged a rally chanting slogans of support for Wednesday's attack.

Eight masked men set fire to an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Another group of men carried a model of a Qassam rocket -- the type used by Hamas.

Israel accused Shehada of masterminding a series of suicide bombings against Israelis in the 22-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

- REUTERS

Feature: Middle East

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