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Israel kills 11 hamas in 2 weeks { September 2 2003 }

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   http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/02/international/middleeast/02MIDE.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/02/international/middleeast/02MIDE.html

September 2, 2003
Israel Kills a Member of Hamas and Threatens to Invade Gaza
By JAMES BENNET

JERUSALEM, Sept. 1 — In the sixth Israeli airstrike in less than two weeks, helicopter gunships fired four missiles at a car in heavy traffic in Gaza City today, killing at least one member of Hamas and wounding 15 other people.

The killing was part of what the Israeli defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, today called an "all out war" against the Islamic militant group, begun after a Hamas suicide bomber killed 21 people aboard a Jerusalem bus on Aug. 19.

Since then, Israel has killed at least 11 members of Hamas, including a top political leader, and three Palestinian civilians.

Israeli officials are threatening a broad invasion of the Gaza Strip if Hamas continues to fire crude rockets over Gaza's fenced boundary into Israel. Israeli news reports quoted the Israeli chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, as telling the cabinet that he had readied a brigade for a possible move into Gaza.

While conducting numerous raids in and out of Gaza over the last year, Israel has also periodically threatened a major invasion of the densely populated coastal strip. The warnings have grown louder as an American-backed peace plan has deflated here over the last two weeks.

Trying to salvage the plan, the Bush administration is working to shore up its preferred Palestinian leader, Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Abbas had been scheduled to face a possible no-confidence vote in the Palestinian parliament today, but the session was postponed until Thursday, and it was not certain the vote would be taken.

Palestinian mediators are trying to resolve Mr. Abbas's latest standoff over the extent of his authority with Yasir Arafat, the pre-eminent Palestinian leader. Mr. Arafat has retained control of most of the Palestinian security forces, and he is refusing to cede it to Mr. Abbas.

The two men, who have worked together for decades, have bickered frequently since Mr. Arafat reluctantly appointed Mr. Abbas in the spring. So far, the pattern has been for Mr. Abbas to threaten his resignation, and then for a face-saving compromise to be worked out. Like Israel, the Bush administration has refused to deal directly with Mr. Arafat.

Palestinian legislators say they are considering as a compromise a seven-member national security council, with Mr. Arafat at its head and Mr. Abbas at his side.

But Palestinian officials are also expressing mounting aggravation with both leaders, complaining that both are letting petty politics distract them at a critical time. They say the impasse has grown quite bitter. In Gaza, Muhammad Abu Sharia, the leader of the general personnel council, an administrative body, continued today to refuse to step down from his post, despite having been replaced by Mr. Abbas and his cabinet days ago.

With armed guards roaming his corridors to defend him, Mr. Abu Sharia said he would leave only on orders of Mr. Arafat, the president of the Palestinian Authority. "The problem is with the cabinet," he said. "It took an illegal decision. Everything should be done in consultation with the president."

Outside the headquarters of the Palestinian parliament in Gaza, a new exhibit has gone up of about 800 photographs of Mr. Arafat.

Israeli security officials say they can no longer concern themselves with Mr. Abbas's fate and the intricacies of Palestinian politics. Israel's political leadership says it has frozen all diplomacy until it judges that the Palestinian Authority is decisively acting against Hamas.

An Israeli security official said that in the strike today in Gaza, the target was a car that intelligence had identified as carrying weapons for Hamas. The official said Israel believed that two Hamas men had died in the strike.

But Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials identified only one man, a low-ranking militant named Khader al-Hosary. Two other militants escaped from the car with light wounds, witnesses said.

Ahid Sbaih, the owner of a nearby men's clothing store, said Mr. Hosary once worked for him, pressing clothes.

Mr. Sbaih said he rushed out of his store when the first missile hit and saw Mr. Hosary trying to open the car door and escape. "He was saying, `Stay away,' and `There is no God but Allah,' " Mr. Sbaih said.

Mr. Sbaih said he was then wounded when a second missile struck the car.

He was treated at Shiffa Hospital in Gaza City for shrapnel wounds to his hands and legs.



Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company


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