TEL AVIV, July 24: The death of children and civilians in Monday night’s raid on Gaza city has sparked intensive soul-searching in the Israeli press, with most newspapers questioning the government’s responsibility.

The top-selling daily Yediot Aharonot criticized the timing of the attack: “An hour and a half after Tanzim (Fatah) leaders agreed to publish an announcement of a unilateral ceasefire, Israel assassinated Salah Shehade in Gaza.

“A process which had been going on for two months, the goal of which was to bring about a ceasefire, was stopped abruptly,” the daily said, joining Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo in accusing Sharon of deliberately sabotaging ceasefire efforts with the strike.

An Israeli minister said on Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who described the killing of Hamas armed wing leader Salah Shehade as one of the Israeli forces’ “most successful operations”, was not informed of the risk to civilians.

But an international outcry left Israel struggling to justify its policy of extra-judicial killings.

“There has never been any dispute over the element of ‘pinpointed’ in these operations. It was clear and certain that the army would take care not to harm innocents, to the extent that it would cancel operations at the last minute if there was danger of civilians being hurt,” the Haaretz newspaper said.

“That certainty, which is a vital, moral foundation for Israeli society in its war against terror, has apparently been undermined in the wake of Monday’s operation in Gaza,” the left-leaning daily said.

Two children were killed on July 31 last year in the West Bank city of Nablus when the Israeli army wiped out six Hamas activists, but Monday’s strike on a densely-populated area was the bloodiest “targeted killing” since the intifada resumed 22 months ago.

The army apologized for the loss of innocent life and said the operation would not have been approved, had it known that civilians might be hurt.

“Come on!”, raged the Jerusalem Post on a front page analysis. “This is the same army that has been praised for excellent intelligence involved in dozens of targeted interceptions of terrorists over the past two years.

“What was the military thinking? That it could send in a fighter-bomber and blow up a man’s house and only he would be killed?”, the English-language daily asked.

“This marks a definite change in policy and the question remains whether this change will boomerang and lead to the deaths of more Israelis in revenge attacks by Hamas,” it added.

The Palestinians said after the strike they would file a complaint with the International Criminal Court, and even Washington — Israel’s staunchest ally — described the raid as “heavy-handed,” while an Israeli rights group accused Sharon’s government of “adopting terrorist tactics”.—AFP