at least two suspected militants of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, and wounding 20 others, several reports said.
It was the sixth such controversial assassination operation by Israeli forces in the past two weeks, in which more than ten Islamic militants and three bystanders have been killed.
Earlier Israeli missiles hit two Hamas operatives in Gaza on Saturday, August 30, as they apparently tried to secure Kassam rockets to fire at Israeli targets, the army said.
Hamas has fired dozens of home-made Kassam rockets at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and targets inside Israel. One of the rockets reached Ashkelon, a coastal city north of Gaza and Israel said the intended target had been a power station.
ATTACKS INCREASE
Israel’s assassination attacks were stepped up after a Hamas suicide bombing on a bus in Jerusalem on August 19 killed 21 Israelis, including five children, and wounded over 100 others.
On Monday, September 1, Palestinian witnesses said they watched four explosions after Israeli helicopters fired the missiles with Israeli F-16 fighter planes flying overhead, the Voice of America (VOA) reported.
Palestinians were quoted as saying that the planes "were used to mask the sound of approaching helicopters."
The international community has condemned these kind of attacks saying it could undermine peace efforts, but Israeli officials maintain they have no other choice as the Palestinian Authority is unable or unwilling to arrest terrorists.
"All talk of the ‘roadmap’ peace plan is meaningless without an end to Palestinian terrorism," the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) News Service quoted Israeli Housing Minister Effi Eitam as saying ahead of the latest violence.
GROUND FORCES
In addition Defense Forces General Moshe Ya’alon reportedly warned that he stands ready to send ground forces into the Gaza Strip in a bid to stop Hamas from carrying out suicide bombings and firing rockets into Israel.
If the order is given, it would mean that an infantry brigade of about 3,000 soldiers would be sent against Hamas bases in Gaza, VOA said.
However Israeli ‘Peace Now’ protestors have accused the government of stirring up tensions, especially by the ongoing "building of settlements" which they said "is destroying" Israel.
SETTLEMENT INAUGURATED
But Israeli Housing Minister inaugurated a new neighborhood in the Samaria settlement of Kdumim Sunday, August 31, saying the new 100 units did not violate existing agreements as they lead to "natural growth" of the population, the ICEJ News Service reported.
Yet militant groups have already made clear they will revenge the latest Israeli violence and settlement policies. On Monday, September 1, Hamas distributed a poster depicting top Israeli leaders on a deck of cards, taking an idea from the United States military and its "deck of cards" of wanted Iraqi officials,.
The poster, which also appears on a pro-Hamas Web site, portrays Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ehud Barak, Shimon Peres, Yossi Sarid and senior security officials, as "Wanted" by Hamas.
TOURISM MINISTER
However the card picturing assassinated tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi has been crossed with an X as he was already shot dead by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine gunmen in a Jerusalem hotel in 2001.
Early in the Iraq war, the U.S. army distributed decks of playing cards bearing the names and faces of the 55 most wanted Iraqis to soldiers. Most have been captured, though Saddam Hussein remains at large.
On Monday, September 1, Arabic television networks aired a new audio- tape said to be that of the former Iraqi leader, in which he denies involvement in last week’s mosque bombing in the city of Najaf, that killed about 100 Shiite Muslims, including a spiritual leader.
