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Israel Kills Islamic Jihad Member
RAFAH, Gaza Strip, April 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An Islamic Jihad activist was killed in an attack by Israeli helicopter gunships on Monday, the act was branded as an assassination by the Palestinian movement, which vowed revenge.
Mohammed Abdel Al, 26, a married father of three, was leaving his home in Rafah on the border between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt when two helicopters blasted his car with rockets, burning him to a crisp, witnesses and medical sources said.
"We will take revenge for the assassination of one of our military activists," an Islamic Jihad official in Palestine told AFP in Gaza City. "The movement's response will be appropriate and strong as you have become accustomed."
If confirmed as an assassination, it would be the first since hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office last month pledging to crack down hard on those Israel holds responsible for anti-Israeli attacks.
It followed the killing on Sunday of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank and warnings by army chief Shaul Mofaz that his forces will strike at those who kill Israeli citizens.
The deputy head of Palestinian preventive security in the Gaza Strip, Rashid Abu Shubak, described the killing of Abdel Al as a new "act of stupidity" by Israel.
"These acts of Israeli stupidity, which culminated with today's attack, will stir up the Palestinian street," Abu Shubak told AFP.
Soon after the attack, witnesses reported a fierce gunfight at Rafah, where the Israeli army said a military patrol had been attacked by grenades and Molotov cocktails.
Witnesses said Israeli tanks shelled the area during the fighting.
The Palestinians have accused Israel of killing around 20 activists in deliberate assassinations during the Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, which erupted more than six months ago.
Targets have included members of Islamic Jihad and its larger rival Hamas as well as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction and his Force 17 elite bodyguard.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the operation, but military radio said security forces had information that Abdel Al was planning an attack.
Another Jihad official said that Abdel Al was responsible for "a number" of operations against Israel and that he had survived an assassination attempt in October when his car was allegedly booby-trapped.
Medical sources said splinters injured three passers-by in the rocket strike. Witnesses said Abdel Al was alone in the vehicle, while the Palestinian security source said two other people had managed to flee unharmed.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for a car bomb blast in Jerusalem last Tuesday - one in a string of such attacks last week - that injured three people.
His death brought the numbers killed as a direct result of the Palestinian uprising, which broke out in late September to 466 - 382 Palestinians, 70 Israelis, 13 Israeli Arabs and one German.
Thousands of people later turned out in Rafah for Abdel Al's funeral, with dozens of gunmen from Jihad, the Palestinian security services and Hamas all firing into the air.
The Israeli army has stepped up activities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the past few days in response to a wave of anti-Israeli attacks. It captured five members of Force 17 in a West Bank raid Saturday night and helicopter gunships blasted Force 17 targets in Ramallah and the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night.
The United States and the European Union, as well as human rights groups, have criticized Israel's practice of summarily killing Palestinians.
The most recent such assassination was in February, when Sharon's predecessor Ehud Barak was still in power, when a Hamas activist was killed in the Balata refugee camp near the northern West Bank town of Nablus.
Islamic Jihad and Hamas are both violently opposed to the peace process and have carried out a number of deadly anti-Israeli attacks since the 1993 Oslo accords granted limited autonomy to the Palestinians.
In Bethlehem, one Israeli soldier and nine Palestinians were wounded in heavy fighting on Monday, witnesses and medical sources said.
Israeli tanks fired shells on and around Bethlehem, setting at least four buildings on fire and wounding seven Palestinians.
Earlier, confrontations between Israeli troops and stone-throwing demonstrators at Rachel's Tomb left two Palestinian teenagers wounded, they said.
Medical sources said the Israeli soldier was shot in the chest during a heavy exchange of fire at Rachel's Tomb.
A three-year-old Palestinian girl was among those wounded by shrapnel in the shelling of Bethlehem's Aida refugee camp, according to medical sources that said she was seriously hurt.
At least four buildings, including Palestinian interior ministry offices and Bethlehem's Paradise Hotel were set ablaze in the shelling, witnesses said.
In Hebron, three Palestinian-owned shops were badly damaged in gas balloon bomb attacks in Hebron. An explosion initially went off in a bakery, destroying it, and badly damaging two adjacent shops, a grocery and a fast food restaurant, witnesses said.
Five Israeli policemen were injured in the blast and were taken to hospital.
Three other gas balloons were found in nearby Palestinian-owned shops. The police and the army suspect that settlers, who have scuffled with Israeli forces and torched Palestinian-owned cars and shops, planted them.
Hebron is populated with 130,000 Palestinians and 450 Jewish settlers.
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