Israelis kill Islamic Jihad chief in Gaza strike
Bashir ad-Dabbash, 38, was the leader in Palestinian territories of the group sworn to destroying the Jewish state and at the forefront of a suicide bombing campaign during a four-year-old Palestinian uprising.
He died alongside another militant one year and one day after the last big suicide bombing by the faction, when a Palestinian woman killed 23 Israelis at a restaurant.
The Israeli army said in a statement it had targeted the vehicle, saying Dabbash was responsible for dozens of attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers.
The killing of the Islamic Jihad leader came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon tries to break armed factions before a planned withdrawal of troops and settlers from occupied Gaza next year.
Militants seek to claim any pullout as a victory.
Dabbash’s body was borne to the morgue from the wreckage of his car, torn apart in the missile strike, by militants firing in the air and chanting for revenge.
“Islamic Jihad will not be broken by this martyrdom,” said Khaled al-Batsh, a senior political leader in Gaza. “Islamic Jihad’s armed wing will return this strike with tougher strikes against the Zionist entity.”
Dabbash headed Jihad’s military wing, known as the al-Quds Brigade.
Political leader Ramadan Shallah is abroad - his predecessor, Fathi Shqaqi was shot dead in Malta in 1995.
Israel does not comment on charges it killed him.
Dabbash’s assassination was Israel’s most high-profile since it killed the leader of the kindred Hamas group in April.
It also sent tension soaring just as Israeli and Palestinian officials were trying to work out a deal on ending a six-day-old Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip to end rocket fire by Palestinian militants.
Against a backdrop of US calls on Israel for restraint, commanders from both sides have begun indirect contact through Egypt on ending the campaign in which 70 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed.
Israel launched the offensive after a Hamas rocket strike killed two Israeli toddlers on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, an Israeli army officer yesterday said Israel had arrested 13 United Nations employees in the Gaza Strip and planned to indict them for “suspected links to terrorism”. He did not say when they were arrested.
Israel is now demanding three straight “rocket-free” days as proof of the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to prevent such attacks, an Israeli security source said.
The last rocket strike on Monday wounded one man on a college campus.
Palestinian militants had initially demanded an end to assassinations, though Israel refused, insiders said.
A Hamas spokesman called the killing of Dabbash “a blow to those who seek to mediate” and said “I do not believe the time is right to talk about stopping any of the resistance.”
The effort to quell fighting in the northern Gaza Strip followed US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s call for Israel to quickly end what has grown into its bloodiest army operation since the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000.
Palestinian sources say 41 militants have been killed.
Two Israeli soldiers and a woman settler have also died.
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