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Israel Assassinates Senior Hamas Leader
BETHLEHEM, West Bank, Oct 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel continued its policy of assassinations today as a missile attack killed a senior member of the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, in Al-Khalil (Hebron) Wednesday, news agencies reported.
Palestinian security officials said that Jamil Jadallah Halisa, 30, a leader of Hamas' armed wing - the Ezzedine Al Qassan Brigades, was wanted by Israel for the killing of two Jewish settlers, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Palestinian security officials said the missile was fired from an Israeli combat helicopter, killing Halisa in the street.
An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed that Israel had carried out the attack.
Israel has killed more than 65 Palestinians in such strikes, Palestinian officials say.
The Jewish state has been strongly condemned by the international community, including its staunchest ally - the United States - for its policy of assassinating Palestinian political leaders and figures.
Two other people were injured in the blast, Palestinian officials said.
The assassination came after Israeli army tanks and bulldozers continued their invasion of Palestinian territories and rolled into the Palestinian-ruled town of Arrabeh in the north of the West Bank at dawn Wednesday. The latest invasion sparked a confrontation that left two Palestinian policemen wounded.
Israeli has been repeatedly condemned by the United States for its incursions into Palestinian self-rule lands.
Palestinian security sources said that Israeli occupation forces surrounded the home of Jihad resistance activist, Nabil Maghir, located about one kilometer inside the Palestinian-ruled area near the city of Jenin, AFP reported.
Jihad has claimed responsibility for a drive-by-shooting attack Sunday in the northern city of Hadera, in which four Israeli women were killed along with the two gunmen. At least 31 people were wounded in the shooting.
About a dozen-armored Israeli army vehicles, two bulldozers and infantry units staged the dawn incursion into the Palestinian town, just two months after the last Israeli raid into the area.
An Israeli military official confirmed that the raid was underway but declined to give details.
The Tel Aviv-based Ha'aretz newspaper said on its Internet edition that five Palestinians, including Maghir, were arrested and two were wounded in the operation.
Israel has intensified its incursions into Palestinian self-rule towns across the West Bank since Israel's tourism minister Revaham Zeevi was assassinated on October 17. The invasions have sparked intense confrontations that have left more than 50 Palestinians dead and dozens more injured.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for the killing of Zeevi in retaliation for Israel's earlier assassination of one of its leaders, Abu Ali Mustapha.
Israel, under mounting U.S. pressure to quell regional tensions, has withdrawn from the town Bethlehem, which it occupied almost two weeks ago. But the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refuses to withdraw from the other five towns it has invaded.
U.S. President George Bush and the State Department have repeatedly called for an "immediate" Israeli withdrawal and condemned the loss of Palestinian lives.
Israel called the U.S. demand "unacceptable".
Despite the U.S. also calling on the Palestinian Authority to crack down on known resistance activists, Israelis were shocked to realize how much they had angered their most important ally, BBC's online service reported.
The New York Times called the Israeli military offensive "ill-advised" and warned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon against actions that would undermine Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's authority.
The Washington Post went much further, declaring in an editorial that "Israel increasingly appears to be embarked not on a legitimate action of self-defense but a destructive campaign of aggression."
Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official said Monday that Arafat would meet Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for the first time in more than a month at a conference of European and Mediterranean countries in Spain on Friday.
According to AFP, Peres confirmed to reporters Tuesday he would "probably" meet Arafat at the conference, but stressed that no talks would take place.
"We shall probably meet but we are not going to negotiate because I think negotiations should be prepared very carefully," said Peres.
But according to BBC's online news service, most analysts believe the atmosphere is so poisoned that the violence would continue and any new ceasefire will be as meaningless as those that have preceded it.
One widely-shared concern is that while Peres may be more amenable to American warnings, while the more hard-line Ariel Sharon wants to keep up the pressure on the Palestinian Authority - even if that means undermining the PA to the point of collapse. Opinion polls in Israel suggest his tough stance is supported by two-thirds of the Israeli public, BBC added.
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