As
the Palestinians slammed a late Tuesday Israeli air strike on Gaza City
as a bid to sabotage an internationally backed peace
"roadmap", German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer pushed
their leader Yasser Arafat to hurry reforms aimed at sharing power with
his moderate new premier, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
Israel
defended the missile strike by an F-16 fighter-bomber and two Apache
helicopters, which killed seven Palestinians, including three Hamas
activists and four civilians.
Military
sources said the raid targeted Hamas leader Saad al-Arabid,
"responsable for attacks which killed and wounded dozens of
people".
"Saad
al-Arabid was a particularly dangerous terrorist," said Deputy
Defense Minister Zeev Boim.
"We
have not changed our policy on targeted operations against terrorists
since the U.S. intervention in Iraq," he added.
Shortly
after the F-16 strike, two Apache helicopters fired two missiles at the
same area, witnesses said. That second attack raised the death toll and
doubled the number of injured as it hit emergency service workers and
onlookers staring at the wreckage from the first missile.
Women
and children were among the 47 wounded, eight of whom were said to be in
critical condition.
Hamas's
armed wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, responded by firing a
home-made missile from the Gaza Strip into the southern Israeli town of
Sderot, without causing damage or injury.
And
around Israeli 15 tanks rumbled into the town of Beit Hanun, just north
of Gaza City, at dawn in a raid that left five Palestinians, including a
13-year-old boy, dead as the Israelis opened fire on crowds of
stone-throwing youths.
At
the same time, medics said a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who was injured
in an Israeli raid on Jabalya refugee camp early last month died from
his wounds.
Hamas
again swore bitter vengeance, with political leader Abdul Aziz
al-Rantissi saying the group would act quickly to avenge the six deaths.
‘Sabotage’
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The
brother of Palestinian Ahmad al-Ashram weeps as he blocks his ears
during the funeral of his 12-year-old brother who was killed in an
Israeli air strike on Gaza
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Meanwhile,
Arafat called the Gaza air raid an unforgivable crime after meeting in
Ramallah, in the West Bank, with Fischer, his first meeting with such a
senior foreign official in almost a year.
Chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat accused Israel of launching the
attack to sabotage the push to implement the international peace
"roadmap", which Israel wants to see heavily “amended”
before being published.
"Israel
is doing all it can to sabotage the roadmap with its policy of killing
and destruction," he said. "The roadmap has been delayed more
than six times."
The
roadmap was drawn up by U.S., UN, EU and Russian diplomats to end the
30-month conflict and create an independent Palestinian state alongside
a secure Israel by 2005.
U.S.
President George W. Bush has said he will publish the roadmap when new
Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas has formed his cabinet. On
Wednesday, Arafat gave Abbas an extra two weeks to do so.
Fischer
also met with Abbas, who is pushing for reforms and for an end to
Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
One
official in the German delegation said Fischer had told Arafat
"that a real breakthrough in the dynamics of change is
necessary."
Fischer
had earlier met with Israeli leaders, stressing the need to support the
moderate Palestinian premier as the latter struggled to form a
government, mainly owing to disagreements with Arafat.
"The
roadmap is an excellent proposal. The reforms in Palestinian areas must
be supported," Fisher said in occupied Jerusalem Tuesday.
Meanwhile,
more violence erupted in the northern West Bank when a bomb ripped
through a school in the village of Al-Jarba, south of Jenin.
A
radical right-wing Jewish group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for
the explosion that injured 29 Palestinian children, Israeli army radio
said.
The
group, calling itself "Revenge of the Babies," said in a
message sent to the radio that the blast was "to avenge the Jewish
children killed by the Palestinians."
