assassination by Israel of one of its leaders in an air strike that threatened to further block the United States backed Roadmap to Peace.
Two bystanders, one an eight-year-old girl, were killed and 27 others wounded in a barrage of rockets from an Israeli military helicopter, that was condemned by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas as a "criminal and terrorist attack."
In addition the White House said U.S. President George W. Bush was "deeply troubled" by the action.
The Israeli air raid in Gaza City came just came shortly after Hamas and two other militant groups joined forces Sunday, June 8, and killed five Israeli soldiers in two separate attacks.
Hamas leader Abdel Aziz-Rantisi, who was wounded in the attempted assassination after an Israeli helicopter targeted his car, stressed his organization would continue to launch violent attacks.
JEWS THREATENED
Speaking to the media from his hospital bed in Gaza Rantisi threatened immediate retaliation. "By Allah we will not rest until we leave no single Jew in Palestine," the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) News Service quoted him as saying.
He added that Hamas wound not rest until "every single Zionist is removed from the Holy Land," making clear he rejects the legitimacy of the State of Israel the ICEJ News Service reported.
"I say to the world no peace with occupation," he also said in another interview with the Cable News Network (CNN). "Occupation contradicts peace. If they want security, the tragedy of the Palestinians should be ended," Rantisi said.
CIVILIANS TARGETED
"Israel is targeting Palestinian civilians, so Israeli civilians should be targeted," the Voice of America (VOA) network quoted the Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin as saying in a separate statement to reporters.
He spoke as an angry mob converging outside the Gaza City hospital Tuesday, June 10, calling for "jihad" and revenge, the ICEJ News Service reported. "Israel can expect severe punishment for this crime…an eye for an eye," Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar was told reporters during the rally.
In Ramallah Palestinian Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo called the strike, the first so-called "targeted assassination" since the start of the current US-led peace efforts. He reportedly said it was "an attack against the roadmap… against the efforts of George Bush and against the efforts of the Palestinians to end the violence."
DIFFICULT TASK
The latest violence was expected to further complicate the task for Prime Minister Abbas, who has appealed to Hamas and other groups to halt suicide attacks to give a chance for negotiations with Israel to succeed.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops have dismantled 10 illegally built Jewish outposts in the West Bank, most of them uninhibited, journalists said.
The move is in line with Israel’s obligations under the so-called "road map" to peace in the Middle East that is backed by the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations.
The plan calls for the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state by 2005.
