Israelis kill Hamas man, wife, daughter: Troops told to wipe out group
TEL AVIV, June 12: Israeli helicopters killed seven Palestinians, including a Hamas leader, his wife and infant daughter, as Israel and the Palestinian group dropped any pretence of peace and declared all-out war.
More than 40 other people were wounded in the raid aimed at Yasser Taha, a wanted leader of the radical group’s military wing, the Ezzedin al Qassam Brigades. At least five of the injured were in serious condition.
In the West Bank, Palestinians shot and killed an Israeli, who was later found dead in his car near a village.
The violence came one day after a Palestinian suicide bombing killed 16 Israelis on a bus and Israeli air raids killed 11 in the Gaza Strip in one of the bloodiest days in months of conflict.
An Israeli source said the missile strike followed a defence ministry order for the army “to wipe out” the Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the bus bombing and vowed further attacks.
Four helicopter gunships fired six missiles at Mr Taha’s car in the northern Gaza City neighbourhood of Sheikh Radwan, while a seventh was fired as bystanders rushing to help the wounded, medical sources said.
A baby bottle and child’s shoes were pulled from the car’s wreckage and Palestinians filled the streets shouting for revenge.
Hamas sources at a Gaza City hospital where the bodies and wounded were taken said Mr Taha was in the car with his wife and their three-year-old daughter when the missiles hit. His relatives said another family member was also killed in the attack. The other victims were thought to be bystanders.
They added that the Israeli army had failed to capture the Hamas leader at his home in Al Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, three months ago.
One of the missiles ripped into a nearby house, shattering the roof and setting it on fire.
A survivor of the blast, Ayman Maadi, 18, said almost his entire family had been hurt by the missile that blasted his house.
“Me and friend Hani were sitting in one of the rooms. When we heard the first missile, we ran for shelter at the back of the courtyard. Then another missile hit the house.
“Our relatives were inside but we couldn’t get close because of the fire,” he said.
A crowd of angry Palestinians gathered around the smouldering wreckage of Taha’s car shortly after the attack which scattered debris over a wide area. A blood-stained sandal floated in water gushing from damaged water pipes.
“These are killers of children, women, innocent people...Let us wait and see who is going to destroy the other,” said a senior Hamas official, Mahmoud al Zahar.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed at a cabinet meeting to press ahead with attacks against Hamas. “This targeted killing is just the beginning,” the Israeli source said.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called on members of the Quartet behind the roadmap to peace — the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia — to intervene.
“We are in need of strong pressure to stop this aggression against our people,” Mr Arafat said.
WHITE HOUSE BLAMES HAMAS: But the White House, while rebuking Israel on Wednesday for trying to assassinate a Hamas leader, on Thursday put the blame for the violence on Palestinian militants.
“The issue is not Israel, the issue is not the Palestinian Authority, the issue is the terrorists who are killing in an attempt to stop the (peace) process,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
“The issue is Hamas, the terrorists are Hamas,” he said.
Hamas earlier had warned foreigners to leave Israel for their own safety. A 46-year-old American from Cleveland, Ohio, was among the 16 killed in Wednesday’s bus bombing in occupied Al Quds.
Thursday’s missile strike came after Mr Sharon ratcheted up the rhetoric amid growing doubts about the “roadmap” promoted earlier this month at a landmark Israeli-Palestinian summit. It calls for an end to violence and a Palestinian state by 2005.
“(Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas) is a chick without feathers. We have to help him fight terror until his feathers grow,” a source quoted the Israeli leader telling an emergency meeting of his right-wing cabinet.
Mr Sharon, criticizing Mr Abbas for failing to rein in militants as mandated by the roadmap, described Palestinian leaders as “crybabies who let terror run rampant”, the source said.
A Palestinian minister, Ziad Abu Amr, said the Israeli leader was “throwing out silly descriptions and silly allegations” to cover his failure to seek a diplomatic solution.
Palestinian officials have said Israeli military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have weakened Palestinian security forces and made it impossible for them to tackle militants.
US Middle East envoy John Wolf will leave for the Middle East this weekend to try and save Washington’s peace plan, a State Department official said.—Reuters\AFP
