The security services increased their level of alert throughout Israel and the territories yesterday, out of fear that terrorist organizations would attempt to carry out attacks in retaliation for the death of 19 Palestinians in an Israel Defense Forces artillery strike on Beit Hanun that morning.

Last night, some 13 hours after the artillery strike, the IDF assassinated a senior Hamas operative who, it said, headed the organization's rocket-manufacturing operation. Ahmed Awad was killed by a missile strike on his car, south of Gaza City. The missile also killed another Hamas operative, Ramzi Skhaider.

	Advertisement

IDF sources said that the army decided to hit Awad despite the tension in Gaza because of his importance to Hamas's rocket-production effort. Awad was also the son-in-law of Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud a-Zahar.

At least 14 Qassam rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip yesterday following the Beit Hanun incident. Most landed in Sderot and environs, while two hit south of Ashkelon. In Sderot, a woman was lightly injured by rocket shrapnel and several residents were treated for shock.

Also yesterday, IDF soldiers opened fire at a cell that was trying to fire Qassams into Israel from Gaza, killing Nimr Abu al-Nadi, 20, and wounding four others.

Inside Israel, the police raised their alert to its second highest level, and Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi ordered beef-up operations at city entrances, bus stations and other places where large numbers of people congregate.

In the West Bank, five Palestinians, four of them armed, were killed in an incident west of Jenin, early yesterday morning. Three of the five were members of Fatah's military wing, and according to the Shin Bet security service, they were involved in attempts to make rockets and launch them into Israel from the West Bank.

In another incident, Palestinians threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at an IDF outpost in Hebron. One soldier was lightly wounded when a stone hit him in the face, and several Palestinians were injured when the troops responded by firing rubber bullets.