Israel killed a top political leader of Hamas
Thursday, prompting the militant Islamic group to ditch a shaky seven-week-old
ceasefire and urge its fighters to strike back at Israel.
A car burns after it was hit by an Israeli
helicopter missile in Gaza City August 21,
2003. [Reuters]
The killing of Ismail Abu
Shanab -- considered by Palestinians and independent analysts as a moderate in
the militant group -- was carried out in response to a suicide bombing in
Jerusalem that killed 20 people.
The collapse of the truce following Abu Shanab's death in an Israeli
helicopter missile strike in Gaza could sink a US-backed "road map" peace plan
aimed at ending nearly three years of violence and creating a Palestinian state
by 2005.
"We urge all our cells of fighters in Palestine to strike in every corner of
the Jewish state," Hamas' armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, said
in a statement.
In what Hamas called its initial response, it fired more than a dozen mortar
bombs and makeshift Qassam rockets at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and
at the town of Sderot inside Israel, causing slight damage but no casualties,
witnesses said.
Senior Hamas leader Ismail
Abu Shanab at the June 16, 2003 talks with journalists in Gaza City. Hamas militant
leader Abu Shanab was the target of an Israeli missile attack in the Gaza
Strip killing at least three people, according to Israeli security sources
and Palestinian witnesses. [Reuters]
The
White House urged Israel to work with the Palestinian Authority to crack down on
the militants.
"Israel has a right to defend herself but Israel needs to take into account the effect that
actions they take have on the peace process," White House spokesman Scott McClellan
told reporters accompanying US President George W. Bush in
Portland, Oregon, during a trip to the Pacific Northwest.
POWELL APPEALS TO ARAFAT
Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to
use security forces to thwart attacks on Israel and warned against abandoning
the road map.
"(I) call on Chairman Arafat to work with (Palestinian) Prime Minister
(Mahmoud) Abbas and to make available to ... Abbas those security elements that
are under his control so that they can allow progress to be made on the road map
-- end terror, end this violence," Powell said at the United Nations.
"At the end of the road map is a cliff that both sides will fall off."
Powell's appeal to Arafat, whom Washington has tried for months to
marginalize, was an implicit acknowledgment that he retains influence and the
moderate Abbas may not have enough clout to stop attacks on Israel.
Israel decided to return to tougher military action against militants after a
Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up on a Jerusalem bus Tuesday. Hamas claimed
the bombing as a retribution for the killing of members of the group and said at
the time it viewed the ceasefire as intact.
About 10 Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled into the town of
Jenin late Thursday in a sweep for militants after a three-hour operation in the
West Bank city earlier in the day, witnesses said.
Israeli tanks and troops also continued a sweep for militants in Nablus after
pushing into the city Wednesday.
Abu Shanab died with two bodyguards when five missiles fired by helicopter
gunships shattered his car as it drove through Gaza City, witnesses said.
Fourteen passersby were wounded.
Abu Shanab was a senior figure in Hamas' political wing, and second only to
its spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
He had taken part in a truce dialogue with Abbas, who is committed to
coexistence with Israel. Abbas called the missile attack "an ugly crime" and
thousands of Palestinians marched in rallies across the Gaza Strip to protest
against the killing.
A senior Hamas spokesman told reporters the attack freed the group from its
commitment to observe the unilateral truce.
"The assassination of Abu Shanab ... means that the Zionist enemy has
assassinated the truce," Ismail Haniyah said in Gaza.
The Islamic Jihad group also renounced the ceasefire.
Israel said Abu Shanab, a high-profile, US-educated engineer, was a member
of Hamas' brain trust, which it accused of planning suicide bombings and
strengthening a "terrorist infrastructure" during the truce militants declared
on June 29.
"He was a murderer," Israeli Vice-Premier Ehud Olmert said. "I hope it's a
lesson for the Hamas people. But it isn't enough, we have to get to each and
every Hamas leader."
