Israeli Missile Strike Kills 3 Islamic Jihad Members in Gaza

JERUSALEM â€”  Missiles fired from an Israeli military helicopter Saturday killed three members of Islamic Jihad as they rode in a car on the edge of Gaza City.

About 10 bystanders, including several Palestinian children, were reported injured in the strike, which took place about 6:30 p.m. on a crowded street in the Saftawi neighborhood.

Israeli military officials said two of the men were senior activists in the militant group, which has taken responsibility for numerous shootings and suicide bombings of Israelis. One of those killed, Mahmoud Juda, was described by Islamic Jihad leaders as the head of the group’s military wing in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials said Juda had been responsible for directing numerous attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers, including an assault in October at the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the central Gaza Strip that left three Israeli soldiers dead and two wounded.

The second man was identified as Ayman Dahdouh, who was responsible for planting bombs targeting Israeli soldiers and civilians, Israeli security sources said. Both men allegedly were planning new attacks.

Also killed was Dahdouh’s cousin, Amin. He was also identified by an Islamic Jihad leader as a member of the group, but was not a target in the attack, Israeli officials said.

Eyewitness Tareq Kassas, 20, said as many as four missiles were fired into the car, a compact Subaru. An Israeli military spokesman declined to say how many were fired.

Hundreds of people crowded the entrance to the morgue at Shifa Hospital, chanting vows of revenge as militants fired shots into the air.

“The war that Israel is waging is targeting all the Palestinians. This is pushing the Palestinians to unify around the option of ... resistance in the face of Israel,� said Nafez Azzam, a senior Islamic Jihad political leader.

During the 41-month Palestinian uprising, Israel has sporadically launched missiles and dropped bombs on leaders and members of militant groups in what it calls “targeted killings� of dangerous figures.

The strikes are controversial because they have killed or injured bystanders in densely populated neighborhoods. The last attack, on Feb. 7, killed an Islamic Jihad leader in a car but also claimed the life of a 12-year-old boy on his way to school.

Saturday’s strike came two days after a pair of Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli soldier in an ambush near the Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Both gunmen were shot dead by other soldiers.

Israeli military officials said Friday that they had discovered a tunnel that they believed the men used to sneak into the industrial park where the soldier was posted.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade subsequently claimed responsibility for the attack. That group and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also claimed responsibility for a shooting attack Friday night that killed two Israelis traveling by car on a highway south of the West Bank city of Hebron.

In other developments in the West Bank on Saturday, a committee of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s ruling Fatah movement ended a tempestuous four-day gathering in Ramallah by endorsing the pursuit of a negotiated peace settlement with Israel under the terms of the U.S.-backed “road map� initiative, and disavowing attacks on civilians.

Under terms of the peace plan, the Palestinians are to take steps to dismantle terrorist groups.

The moderate language adopted by the 126-member Revolutionary Council was seen as being aimed at Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is affiliated with Fatah but whose members often operate in semiautonomous local cells. The brigade also has claimed responsibility for two recent suicide bombings on Jerusalem buses.

The Fatah leaders warned militants who are members of their movement against attacks on Israeli civilians.

“All the members of this movement should abide by this program and who does not abide by it is out of the movement,� said Jibril Rajoub, security chief for the Palestinian Authority.

The gathering took place amid growing impatience among the Fatah rank and file, with younger members calling for elections to remove an old guard they view as ineffectual and ridden with cronyism. The movement’s General Assembly, which would hold such elections, has not met for 15 years.

During one session, Arafat stormed out after engaging in a shouting match with another senior Fatah official. The council promised elections within a year.

In a further sign of the discontent, the mayor of Nablus quit his post Friday over the Palestinian Authority’s failure to curb growing lawlessness in the city.

“I see my city collapsing, and I don’t want to stand idly by and watch this collapse,� Mayor Ghassan Shaka, a Fatah member, told Associated Press. “My resignation is a warning bell to the Palestinian Authority and the residents of Nablus, because both of them are doing nothing for this city.�

Shaka’s brother was killed by unidentified gunmen last year, and the mayor has complained that authorities have done little to solve the slaying.

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Special correspondents Fayed abu Shammalah in Gaza City and Maher Abukhater in Ramallah contributed to this report.