NABLUS, Feb 7: The leader of Islamic Jihad’s armed wing in the West Bank was shot dead by Israeli troops on Tuesday as the government vowed to continue its policy of targeting Palestinian militants.

Ahmed Raddat, whose body was recovered after a lengthy gunbattle, became the eighth militant to be killed in three days in the worst cycle of violence since the shock election victory last month of Hamas.

Seven others have been killed in air strikes on the Gaza Strip, including two members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who were killed on Monday by a missile that slammed into their vehicle in the north of the territory.

Military and Jihad sources said Mr Raddat, who was shot dead in Nablus, was the overall West Bank commander of the faction’s Al Quds Brigade, which has been responsible for all suicide attacks on Israel in the last year.

Israel suspected him of recruiting Palestinian militants for attacks.

Jihad’s master rocket-maker was also killed in an Israeli air strike on Sunday, prompting the movement to threaten to ‘open the gates of hell’.

Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said the army would continue to target anyone who threatened the safety of Israeli citizens.

“We will continue to carry out these essential operations as long as they are needed against all organisations who dare to threaten the security of Israeli citizens,” he told army radio.

Nabil Abu Rudeina, the spokesman for Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, condemned Israel’s ‘escalation, continued assassinations and aggressions against our Palestinian people’.

“Its aim is to put obstacles in front of the new government and Palestinian national dialogue. We are asking the international community to immediately halt incursions in the West Bank, the assassinations and air strikes in Gaza.”—AFP