The Israeli army detained many Palestinian residents in Hebron

Additional Reporting By Mustafa el-Sawwaf, IOL Palestine Correspondent

GAZA CITY, June 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Two Hamas members were killed in a fresh Israeli air raid on Gaza overnight Wednesday, June 12, as the Israeli army were ordered to “wipe out” the Islamic resistance movement.

A number of Israeli helicopter gunships flew at low altitude over Gaza, firing rockets on the vehicle carrying Rami Abu Kumeil and Mohamed Daghmash of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed branch, in Gaza's Zeitoun district, Palestinian sources told IslamOnline.net.

But the two members jumped out of the car on time, to be then shot by two Israeli missiles, leaving them dead and another lightly injured, added the sources.

The attack came two days after Israeli helicopters fired several rockets on a car carrying key Hamas figure Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, leaving him injured and two others dead.

The armed branch of Hamas confirmed that two members died in the raid.

An Israeli security source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that "the raid targeted a terrorist cell that was preparing to fire Qassam rockets at Israel."

"This raid is not linked with the “suicide” attack perpetrated Wednesday in Jerusalem" which killed 16 people as well as the bomber and wounded dozens of people,” the sources added.

The raid also followed an earlier incursion that rained missiles on a car in Gaza City, killing seven people, including two members of the military wing of Hamas, Palestinian sources said.

The earlier Gaza strike also left two women dead and some 20 people wounded.

Minutes after that missile attack, hundreds of Hamas supporters and other Palestinians mobbed the smoldering car wreckage and started chanting anti-Israeli slogans, vowing to give their lives for the Palestinian cause.

Fire Exchange

On Wednesday evening there was a firefight between Palestinians and Israeli troops in tanks in Beit Lahia, in the north of the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian security source said.

A third Palestinian died early Thursday of his wounds following the attack on Rantissi.

Mahmoud el-Jaal, 50, died of his wounds sustained in the raid which wounded Hamas political chief Abdelazaz el-Rantissi and killed two other people.

Wednesday's raids capped one of the worst explosions of violence since the start of the intifada in September 2000, leaving more than 30 people dead in two days.

They came barely a week after the first Israel-Palestinian summit of President George W. Bush's tenure, which put him under pressure to show his mettle in containing the fallout from Middle East violence and implementing a U.S.-backed "roadmap" to peace.

All-out War On Hamas

Meanwhile, the Israeli army has been ordered to "completely wipe out" the Palestinian Islamic resistance group Hamas, army radio reported on Thursday.

The order, which directs the military to use "whatever means necessary," was issued following a meeting of Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz with the army's top command shortly after the attack on western Jerusalem that killed more than 16 peoples and injured around 100.

Everyone, "from the lowliest member to Sheikh Ahmad Yassin," a Hamas founder and its spiritual guide, is a legitimate target, the report said.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the explosion, saying it was a retaliation for targeting Rantissi and seven others, including civilians, during the Tuesday raid, few hours after the group welcomed a call by Palestinian government to hold ceasefire talks.

The Israeli cabinet was scheduled to meet Thursday morning to consider how to respond to that Jerusalem attack, amid reports that ministers will again raise the question of expelling Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the territories.

Arafat called on Palestinian factions to stop attacks against Israel in a statement shortly after the Jerusalem attack which he dubbed “terrorist”

"It is Israel's duty to respond following the horrific attack in Jerusalem, but we have to avoid antagonizing the Americans, we have to react in an intelligent way," Justice Minister Tommy Lapid said.

Following criticism at home and abroad, including from the White House, over the timing of an assassination attempt against Rantissi, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has remained unmoved.

The former general "made it clear that insofar as terror is concerned, there will be no concessions, adding that he has made this clear in all of his conversations with the White House and the U.S. State Department," his office said in a statement issued before the Jerusalem bombing.

Sharon vowed Wednesday night to "continue to fight relentlessly against "terrorism", against those who finance, plan and perpetrate attacks against Jews."

Israeli army soldiers detained Palestinian residents for questioning near the family house of 18-year-old Hamas bomber Abdel Madi Shabneh in the West bank city of Hebron late Wednesday, who carried out the Jerusalem attack disguised as an ultra-Orthodox Jew.

Fearing that the Israeli army will soon destroy the building, relatives and friends removed goods from the house of Shabneh in the West Bank city of Hebron.