Hamas vows revenge after IAF strike

An Israel Air Force missile strike killed two Palestinian militants, including a leading Hamas operative, in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday afternoon. The strike triggered threats of violence from Hamas, which said it would avenge the assassination.

An Israeli plane fired a missile at a car in the camp, killing Fatah activist Hassan al-Madhoun, 32, and Hamas operative Fawzi Abu al-Qarea, 37, and wounding at least 10 other people, medics said.

Madhoun, who Israel Defense Forces sources called the main target, was a fugitive whom Israel has accused of planning numerous deadly bombings, including those at the Ashdod port and the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel. Ten Israelis were killed in the Ashdod bombing.

He was considered the head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the northern strip, responsible for their cooperation with the Islamic organizations.

In recent months he allegedly acted against Fatah's truce by tightening his cooperation with Hamas.

Madhoun is suspected of attempting to send a female suicide bomber from Gaza to Be'er Sheva's Soroka Medical Center.

Israel had asked the Palestinian Authority several times to arrest him, but in vain.

Abu al-Qarea was considered a central Hamas activist. He and Madhoun were suspected of being involved in firing Qassam rockets. The two were friends and acted in unison.

However, military sources admitted yesterday that the Hamas man was not the assassination's target and that the intelligence officials did not know he was in the car with Madhoun. Killing him could have significant consequences, because Hamas has refrained from anti-Israel activity in the Gaza Strip during the past month.

"This is an open war," said Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri yesterday. "They [the Israelis] are going to pay a heavy price for their crimes ... We will not stand handcuffed."

"This assassination will open the gates of hell on the enemy," Islamic Jihad, a group sworn to Israel's destruction, said.

A spokesman from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, with whom Madhoun had previously worked, said, "Our retaliation will be equal to the size of the crime." The spokesman, who identified himself as Abu Ahmed, was masked and carried an M-16 assault rifle.

Dozens of angry militants rushed to the local hospital where the bodies were taken. The gunmen fired into the air and chanted "revenge, revenge."

The two men were traveling in a car with a red Palestinian Authority security license plate, witnesses said. The missiles hit the car only a few minutes after a convoy carrying Palestinian Authority Chairman Mah

	Palestinians inspecting the wreckage of a car hit by an Israeli missile in the Jabalya refugee camp, adjacent to Gaza City, yesterday. (Reuters)