Israel air strike condemned as Hamas vow to wreak revenge

THE air strike which killed 15 Palestinians and obliterated a three-story building and destroyed or badly damaged several adjacent ones, came as Palestinian and Israeli political leaders were discussing ways to relieve tensions in the West Bank.

The raid appeared likely to derail those efforts as Hamas said it would take revenge.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel had "no interest in harming civilians" in the attack. Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer issued a statement saying that "the information which we had was that there were no civilians near him".