 |
|
Locals search the destroyed house of Shuka after the Israeli blast
|
Additional
Reporting By Mustafa el-Sawwaf, IOL Correspondent
GAZA
CITY, February 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Hamas vowed
revenge Friday, February 6, one day after a military leader was
assassinated by Israeli occupation forces.
The
assassination came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon considers
getting the U.S. support for a controversial unilateral disengagement
plan to evacuate settlers out of Gaza Strip in return for expansion in
the West Bank.
An
Israeli aircraft fired a missile at the house of Naser Abu Shuka, 36,
in the Bureij refugee camp in the West Bank, eyewitnesses told
IslamOnline.net.
Shuka,
a leader of Qassam Brigades, breathed his last after being directly
targeted by the missile, Hamas said in a statement. The group's
activists used local mosque loudspeakers to accuse Israel of
assassinating him.
‘Dear
Price’
Hamas
vowed revenge, saying in a statement obtained by IOL that "a dear
price will be paid" for the assassination.
After
the assassination, Hamas military wing activists launched a series of
mortar and Qassam rockets on Jewish settlements in southern Gaza Strip
and on Western Negev in southern Israel.
"It
was a response to killing Shuka," the Brigades said in another
statement. No casualties or damage were reported.
The
Israeli army denied the military was involved in the incident.
"There
were no forces in the area, neither on land nor in the air," at
the time of the blast, a spokesman told Reuters.
But
the agency quoted eyewitnesses as saying that Israeli warplanes were
hovering over the home of Shuka after the explosion.
The
blast left most of Abu Shuka's one-storey concrete home in ruins but
there were no reports of other casualties. Neighbors saw his wife and
a daughter leave the house unharmed shortly after the explosion.
Observers
say the Israeli escalations could be meant to divert attention one day
after Sharon was questioned
by police February 5, about a bribe scandal which
critics say could move him out of office.
House
Demolition
In
the meantime, Israeli army continued house demolitions in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip as a measure dismissed by local inhabitants as
collective punishment.
The
soldiers destroyed a house in Burqeen village, claiming it is owned by
an Islamic Jihad member, despite that no one was inside, eyewitnesses
said.
Israeli
forces also confiscated more Palestinian land in the West Bank by
uprooting olive trees near Jewish settlements to pave the way for the
separation wall.
The
wall is to cut off thousands of families from their farmlands and
intrude on swathes in the West Bank.
Moving
to Jabaliya refugee camp, Palestinians paid last respects to a
22-year-old who was killed while attempting to fire a rocket at an
Israeli jeep near the central Jewish settlement of Netzarim in Gaza
city Thursday.
"The
body of Mahmud al-Dibes reached our hospital this morning. It was
headless and missing legs and one arm," said doctor Ibrahim
al-Musader from Deir al-Balah hospital.
The
mourners vowed Palestinians' right to resist occupation of their
territories as long as it exists.
Also
in Gaza City, the head of the Palestinian police also escaped an
apparent assassination bid when gunmen burst into his Gaza City
offices and opened fire, killing one officer, sources said.
Eleven
policemen and bodyguards were wounded when a "group of outlaws
tried to assassinate the head and founder of the Palestinian police,
General Ghazi al-Jabali, in his office in Gaza," a police
statement said.
U.S.
Support
Moving
to occupied Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is
contemplating asking for the U.S. government's agreement to expand
settlement blocs on the West Bank in exchange for evacuating isolated
Jewish settlement there and most settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Settlements
are deemed illegal by the international community, but Israel pays no
heed to appeals for their evacuation.
"One
of the options being discussed is to resettle residents of evacuated
colonies in these (expanded West Bank) settlements," Sharon's
spokesman Assaf Shariv told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Friday.
Sharon
is to present the rough outline of his "unilateral disengagement
plan " from the Palestinians during a visit in Washington
slated for end-February or at the beginning of March.
But
he will not detail his final plan, including an evacuation of 17 of
Gaza's 21 settlements, said sources close to Sharon.
Washington
had earlier warned Israel that it
would oppose any unilateral Israeli move towards a
Middle East settlement that falls outside the U.S.-backed road map for
peace.
U.S.
officials believe "that a settlement must be negotiated and we
would oppose any Israeli effort to impose a settlement," said
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on December 18.
The
details of the plan are being worked out by a newly formed team of
advisers headed by army reserve general Giora Eiland and should be
finalized in April.
Sharon
said on Tuesday, February 3, that an Israeli pullout from Gaza is
crucial for the Jewish state's survival , as his deputy said a
plan to "disengage" from the Palestinians could take effect
by the summer.
He
has warned that unless the internationally-drafted "roadmap"
blueprint for peace made tangible progress, he would implement the
disengagement plan.
