Hamas vows revenge for missile attack

HAMAS threatened revenge yesterday after an Israeli helicopter blew up a car on a busy Gaza City street, killing a Hamas militant who was involved in making and firing rockets at Israeli towns.

Six bystanders were wounded, two of them seriously.

The missile struck Khaled Abu Shamiyeh, 30, as he was riding in his car in Gaza City. Abu Shamiyeh was the head of Hamas in Gaza’s Sheik Radwan neighbourhood.

The Israeli army claimed he was involved in building homemade Qassam rockets.

Omar Arfa, 52, who owns a fast food stand in Gaza City, said the street was full of cars when the helicopter fired the missile.

“A spark came from the sky, then there was a huge explosion in part of street,” he said.

Hamas militants gathered at the hospital and called for revenge against Israel.

“Hamas will teach the enemy (Israel) a painful lesson,” said Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri.

On September 7, helicopters fired missiles at a Hamas training area, killing 14 militants.

Hamas and other militant groups have fired hundreds of highly inaccurate, low-explosive, homemade rockets at Israeli towns and Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Many of the rockets land in empty fields but two Israelis, including a four-year-old boy, were killed in one attack.

In a separate incident in Gaza, the Israeli army killed an unarmed Palestinian who was approaching a military outpost near a Jewish settlement, the army said.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged last Sunday to strike back at militants launching rockets from the Gaza Strip, saying the army would fire at them even if they are in residential areas.

Meanwhile, a Gaza settler leader, Avner Shimoni, said settlers slated for evacuation filed appeals against the pull-back yesterday in Israel’s Supreme Court.