Israeli army kills Hamas leader

THE Israeli army yesterday killed a leader of the military wing of Hamas in a stepped-up offensive against the Islamic militant group behind the killing of four soldiers in a tank gutted by a land mine.

Riyad Abu Zeid died while being evacuated by a military helicopter to an Israeli hospital with wounds sustained in an exchange of fire with soldiers who were trying to arrest him, the army said in a statement.

The killing, which Palestinians called an “assassination” of Abu Zeid, appeared to be part of an Israeli thrust against Hamas in Gaza after the death of the four-man tank crew in a weekend attack claimed by Hamas.