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Israel Escalates Aggression After Hanoud's Assassination
GAZA, Nov. 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A day after Israeli forces assassinated Hamas member Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, Israeli helicopters and ground troops attacked a number of Palestinian Authority installations in the Gaza Strip early Sunday morning, news agencies reported.
Palestinian security officials say the Israeli army fired at least 20 missiles at Palestinian targets, wounding at least three people, including a boy who was critically injured when a wall collapsed on him.
A Palestinian security official said the Israeli military action constituted a "new Israeli aggression" that was pushing the region "to explode." The strikes followed a mortar bomb attack Saturday that killed an Israeli soldier near a Jewish settlement in Gaza.
The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, said it fired the mortar bombs to avenge Israel's assassination of Hanoud, who was killed in a helicopter ambush Friday. He was a top member of Hamas's military wing, which has resisted Israel's military occupation for years.
Israel acknowledged it carried out Hanoud's assassination.
During Hanoud's funeral, tens of thousands of Palestinians joined the leader's funeral procession, chanting "Sharon, wait, revenge is coming soon," a reference to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The hardline Israeli leader's administration has initiated the assassinations of around 60 Palestinians in the last several months.
A Hamas leader in Nablus, Teissir Imran, informed the crowd that "Sharon opened the door to hell, for himself and his people."
Israel's killing of Abu Hanoud is expected to push the region into more turmoil as the United States is launching a new Mideast settlement mission, news agencies reported. More conflict is likely to emerge, particularly given the Palestinians' keen awareness that Washington annually provides Israel with billions in military aid while claiming the role of an "honest broker" in peace talks.
"[Israel] assassinated Palestinians under the umbrella of the alliance with the United States of America," CNN quoted Hamas spokesman Abdel Aziz Rantissi as saying. "So... the supporters of Israeli terror is the United States of America."
Israel's killing of Hanoud drew condemnation in Paris where a French foreign ministry spokesman criticized the "particularly inappropriate and irresponsible act...at a time when parties have been asked to resume dialogue to bring about a ceasefire."
In Cairo, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Israel's killing of Palestinians and other acts of violence constituted "a serious challenge" to the U.S. peace initiative.
The killing of the Hamas leader and his companions Friday followed the funerals of five Palestinian schoolboys who died in an explosion in the Gaza Strip caused by an Israeli booby-trap.
The Israeli army admitted that one of its devices was probably "involved," according to the BBC. "From an initial investigation...the possibility emerges that the children were killed because they were playing with a bomb which Israeli soldiers had planted in the sandbagged position which had been used for terrorist attacks on our forces," the BBC quoted an Israeli occupation army spokesman as saying.
The Israeli daily newspaper, Maariv, quoted military sources as saying that a week ago special forces had laid a booby-trap in the area where the blast occurred to kill Palestinians who had allegedly been firing mortar bombs at Israeli targets.
Those attacks were regularly responded to by Israeli machine-gun and tank fire and several Palestinians have been shot and killed as a result. That led to the initial conclusion that the boys - all from the same family and under the age of 14 - had happened on an unexploded shell.
But Maariv quoted its source as saying a special unit of the Israeli army crossed into Palestinian-controlled territory last week and set the booby trap, one typically used by the army.
The BBC said tensions have been high in Gaza for months, with Israeli tanks in positions to protect the Jewish settlers who make their homes on occupied Palestinian land nearby.
According to the U.K.-based magazine, The Economist, Israel has "flouted" the 1993 Oslo accords by settling tens of thousands of its people on land seized from Palestinian owners - a practice outlawed by international law.
More fighting preceded the assassination of the Hamas leader, with CNN reporting that two Palestinians were killed in an explosion and a teenager was killed in a "shooting incident" at Khan Younis in clashes with the Israeli army after funerals for the five boys.
In another incident covered by the network, the Palestine Red Crescent said the Israeli army opened fire on a car in southern Gaza, killing one Palestinian man and leaving two others - a man and a woman - clinically dead. Another woman sustained moderate wounds, the Red Crescent reported.
Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources said three Israeli tanks entered Palestinian-ruled areas to the east and south of Deir El Balah near Kfar Darom and fired four shells. They added that two Palestinians were wounded in the military action.
These developments come as diplomats head for the region to settle the crisis. Former U. S. Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns are due to arrive in the region Monday. The two mediators are expected to attempt to revive a truce deal.
But Nabil Abu Rudeinah, an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, accused Israel of trying to sabotage U.S. peace efforts by killing Abu Hanoud, news agencies reported.
The U.S. diplomats are expected to push for more efforts by both sides to comply with a report issued several months ago by the Mitchell Commission, which calls for, among other things, a freeze on Israeli settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land. Sharon, however, has repeatedly made clear his support for the settlement movement.
The U.S. has been particularly concerned with calming the Mideast conflict ever since Sept. 11, when Washington set about rallying Arab support for its war on Afghanistan.
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