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Last update - 19:26 12/01/2009
IAF kills one of Hamas' top five leaders in Gaza
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
Tags: hamas, israel news, idf, gaza

An Israel Air Force strike on a home in the Gaza Strip on Thursday killed a senior Hamas political leader, Hamas security sources said.

Nizar Rayyan, the most senior Hamas leader to be killed in a six-day-old Gaza air offensive, ranked among among Hamas' top five decision-makers as the liaison between the group's military and political wing.


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Defense officials said a one-ton bomb was used to attack Rayan's home, and that weapons stored inside set off secondary explosions.

Eighteen other people, including two of Rayan's four wives and four of his 12 children, also died, Palestinian health officials said. The Muslim faith allows men to have up to four wives.

Many Hamas leaders have gone into hiding, anticipating assassination attempts by Israel. Hamas Radio said Rayan rejected the group's advice to leave his house. The military said he had a tunnel under his house that could serve as an escape route.

A lecturer at Gaza's Islamist University, Rayan, 49, had mentored suicide bombers and would sometimes go on patrol with Hamas fighters. He was known for his close ties to the group's military wing and was respected in Gaza for donning combat fatigues and personally participating in clashes against Israeli forces. He sent one of his sons on an October 2001 suicide mission that killed two Israeli settlers in Gaza.

He was also an outspoken advocate of renewing suicide bombings against Israel. Hamas said Israel would pay a "heavy price" for his death.

The IAF continued its bombing of Gaza Strip targets before dawn Thursday, hitting three government buildings in Gaza City and a number of houses in the northern Strip it said were being used to store weapons.

Hospital officials said 25 wounded were evacuated from nearby houses after the attack on the Gaza City buildings.

At around 7 P.M. Thursday, in cooperation with the Shin Bet security service, IAF warplanes bombed the home of Nabil Amarin, another senior Hamas man who served as a commander within the organization. The building that was bombed contained a large amount of ammunition and weapons. The IAF identified secondary blasts after having hit the structure, indicating the presence of bombs within it.

With a shrinking number of targets to hit from the air and top Hamas leaders deep in hiding, an Israel Defense Forces ground operation seemed all the more likely.

In fresh raids on the sixth day of hostilities, Israeli aircraft and naval forces attacked about 20 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, an IDF official said. Palestinian medical officials said three civilians
were killed and 100 people wounded.

Hamas security officials said buildings housing the education and transportation ministries had been virtually destroyed. The Palestinian parliament building was also hit, they said. Gazans who ventured out of their homes walked along rubble-strewn streets to survey the destruction.

The IAF also reported Thursday that it had attacked the rocket launching squad responsible for firing the Grad which scored a direct hit on an eight-floor apartment building in Ashdod minutes before.

The military said aircraft also bombed smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border, part of an ongoing attempt to cut off Hamas' last lifeline to the world outside the embattled Palestinian territory.

IAF aircrafts also went after Hamas police and their vehicles in the Gaza Strip. Two people were killed when a car was blown up.

One pre-dawn strike targeting the house of a Hamas operative in northern Gaza killed a 35-year-old woman and wounded eight people, a Gaza Health Ministry official said.

On Wednesday, The IAF said it had hit 25 terror-related targets including the offices of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and a mosque in the city of Gaza where Hamas activists were hiding, and which had been used as a weapons storehouse.

Rockets had also been fired at Israel from the mosque.

Shin Bet security service officials said that over the last few days, Palestinian militants have been seen carrying Katyusha and Qassam rockets, as well as a large supply of other weapons, around the vicinity of the mosque. The Shin Bet said that these weapons were destroyed in the IAF strike.

Israeli aircraft pounded smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border earlier Wednesday, setting off a huge explosion in a fuel tunnel, witnesses said, as other aircraft hit Hamas positions in Gaza City.

At least six Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in the Israeli attacks including a Palestinian doctor and medic. More than 400 Palestinians have been killed in Operation Cast Lead and 1,600 have been injured.

In six days of shock-and-awe raids, IAF warplanes have carried out more than 500 sorties against Hamas targets, and helicopters have flown hundreds more combat missions, a senior Israeli military officer said on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

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      1.   Hamas political leader 15:21  |  Ehud 01/01/09
      2.   Political Leader? 15:30  |  Ehud 01/01/09
      3.   Political leader 2 15:47  |  Ehud 01/01/09
      4.   message to No. 1 16:06  |  thinking clearly 01/01/09
      5.   UN to add him to count of civilians 16:15  |  Arie 01/01/09
      6.   Seasons` Greetings and a Happy New Year to All. 16:16  |  Dagma 01/01/09
      7.   Gaza is a region not a country 16:18  |  Miriam Smith 01/01/09
      8.   presstv.ir 16:33  |  Anti Molla 01/01/09
      9.   Not a political leader - just a murderous leader 16:41  |  Mike 01/01/09
      10.   A Dead Political-Military 16:42  |  Mark 01/01/09
      11.   Meanwhile 16:45  |  Chris Linthwaite 01/01/09
      12.   to #1 16:45  |  Eric 01/01/09
      13.   HAARETZ: #1 Ehud is 100% correct. Not Political Leader, Military 17:02  |  Vittorio 01/01/09
      14.   IDF/IAF: Happy New Year! Felice Anno Nuovo! 17:05  |  Vittorio 01/01/09
      15.   Keep up the offensive! 17:09  |  Nechama 01/01/09
      16.   #9 LInthwiate - You`re always talking about 17:28  |  *BEN JABO 01/01/09
      17.   Worried about Shaleet 17:32  |  shlomo 01/01/09
      18.   Chris, are you telling porkies? 17:55  |  Hannah 01/01/09
      19.   To Eric 17:55  |  David LG 01/01/09
      20.   #16 Ben Jabo 18:03  |  Chris Linthwaite 01/01/09
      21.   Gilat Shalit to #17 18:08  |  Esther 01/01/09
      22.   The Funny Thing is 18:18  |  Gil 01/01/09
      23.   israel lost 18:39  |  nimoor 01/01/09
      24.   #18 Hannah in London 18:46  |  Chris Linthwaite 01/01/09
      25.   ONLY haaretz and arab papers call him a `political` leader 18:59  |  Arie 01/01/09
      26.   Thanks for Fatah"s help in locating Hamas killers 19:00  |  Yetshak 01/01/09
      27.   21 Esther -You are 100000000% right .Enough Shalit blackmail! 19:06  |  Alan SA 01/01/09
      28.   Finally bagged one! 19:10  |  Mark Lincoln 01/01/09
      29.   Chris - perhaps you need to read more carefully 19:29  |  Hannah 01/01/09
      30.   BLAME AhMADinejad for ALL GAZA DEATHS 19:40  |  Itamar Shabtai 01/01/09
      31.   Prosecuting a war from the air. 19:42  |  sandra chitayat 01/01/09
      32.   4 wives, 4 wives in 2009, that explains the gap in mentality 19:49  |  Simon 01/01/09
      33.   Simon, any clue as to what the Torah says? 20:38  |  Mark Lincoln 01/01/09
      34.   Mark #33 22:02  |  KT 01/01/09
      35.   #32 Simon: Wives Were Widowed By IDF 22:07  |  Hizbullah 01/01/09
      36.   #35 - marrying 3 widows only makes sense if 75% of men killed 00:18  |  Barry 02/01/09
      37.   #35: Plerfectly put 00:23  |  Jafar 02/01/09
      38.   #35 - marrying 3 widows only makes sense if 75% of men killed 00:24  |  Barry 02/01/09
      39.   To 32 00:26  |  koko 02/01/09
      40.   to David LG #19 00:33  |  James 02/01/09
      41.   Just your regular civilian with fatigue and RPG 01:03  |  Dan 02/01/09
      42.   James it is withdrawal from 100% of Gaza, do not twist facts 04:23  |  Genuine Tosefta 02/01/09
      43.   #20 2ND TRY Linthwaite 04:51  |  *BEN JABO 02/01/09
      44.   #33 Lincoln 05:02  |  *BEN JABO 02/01/09
      45.   #352ND TRY Hizbullah - If Rayyan wanted to protect them 05:04  |  *BEN JABO 02/01/09
      46.   Widows provide experienced labor 05:15  |  Malach HaMavet 02/01/09
      47.   to Genuine Tosefta # 42 10:18  |  James 02/01/09
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