12 killed in Israeli strike on house

At least 12 people were killed today when an Israeli warplane blew up the house of a leading Hamas militant in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.

The air strike came just as Palestinians and Israelis were trading ideas to relieve tensions in the West Bank, but the bloody results of the Israeli attack were likely to derail the efforts as Hamas threatened revenge.

The security officials said the house belonged to Sheik Salah Shehada, founder of the military wing of Hamas, known as Izzadine el-Qassam, in Gaza and the West Bank.

Hamas spokesman Ismail Haniyeh said Shehadeh’s wife and three of their children were killed. He did not say whether Shehadeh himself was among the casualties. Hospital officials said more than 100 people were wounded.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

The Hamas military wing has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks against Israelis during nearly two years of fighting, including many suicide bomb attacks.

Haniyeh said: ‘‘Not only will Hamas take revenge for the martyrs, all the Palestinian people will unify to revenge for the blood of the martyrs.’’

Before the attack, top Israeli and Palestinian officials were exchanging ideas about easing Israeli restrictions in the West Bank, scaling back an Israeli stranglehold that has led to warnings of starvation and malnutrition there.

Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres said that the army was prepared to withdraw from two West Bank towns, Bethlehem and Hebron, as long as they remained quiet and if the Palestinians assumed control of security.

But more hawkish elements of Israel’s government expressed deep scepticism about the possibility of reaching any deal that would hold, and suggested that Israel would remain in the Palestinian towns for a considerable time - even until Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was no longer in power.

Yesterday, Israeli police reopened the university offices of the leading Palestinian official in Jerusalem, Sari Nusseibeh. Police closed his office two weeks ago, alleging that Nusseibeh, the president of Al Quds University, had violated peace accords by engaging in Palestinian political activity in Jerusalem.

Nusseibeh, who is also the chief representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Jerusalem, said he signed a document yesterday agreeing not to use the premises for political activity.

Yesterday’s statement by Mr Peres followed a three-hour meeting on Saturday between the foreign minister and fellow Cabinet member Dan Naveh and a Palestinian delegation headed by Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat.

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported yesterday that the Palestinians outlined a proposal to resume security cooperation with Israel after Israeli troops withdraw.

Palestinians would undertake to confiscate illegal weapons and arrest militants, Haaretz reported. In return, Israel would free prisoners arrested in the fighting, end its strikes on Palestinian targets and end its ‘‘targeted killings’’ of militants.

The proposal was similar to a deal worked out last summer by CIA director George Tenet that was never implemented as the violence escalated.

An Israeli government official said the proposal was being discussed as part of a broader discussion on reforming the Palestinian security and financial apparatus.

Yesterday, two Palestinian militants were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers when they tried to attack a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza Strip, the army said.