Hamas vows revenge after helicopter strike

The Palestinian terror group Hamas vowed to have its revenge today after Israel killed four of its members in another missile strike.

Israeli army chief Lt Gen Moshe Yaalon said anyone in the militant group is now a legitimate target for “liquidation”. But Hamas remained defiant.

“If the Israelis thought assassinations would destroy our determination to continue in our resistance, to continue defending ourselves, they are mistaken,” spokesman Ismail Haniya said.

“We will move ahead whatever the sacrifice.”

Last night’s air strike was part of the Israeli response to a Hamas suicide bombing last week that killed 21 people on a Jerusalem bus.

That bombing – and Israel’s response – threatened a further escalation of the violence and put more pressure on the US-backed road map peace plan.

The Hamas military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, issued a statement vowing to avenge the latest air strike.

“Our response will be painful and quick,” it said.

Witnesses in Gaza City said Israeli helicopters fired at least three missiles at a car full of armed men near a crowded beach yesterday evening, killing four members of Izzedine al Qassam and wounding more than a dozen bystanders.

Some of the victims were decapitated by the assault, which took place just 100 yards from the Gaza City office of Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan.

“The first missile hit the car, four people fled the car and then three more missiles were fired at them... It was difficult to look at the scene,” said Abdel Salam Abu Askar, a Palestinian journalist and witness.

Israeli security officials said one of the dead, Ahmed Aishtawi, was a top operative who planned and executed attacks in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

A Hamas spokesman said Aishtawi was the leader of a unit that pioneered the firing of home-made rockets into Israel and at Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank city of Hebron, police and soldiers removed about 50 Jewish settlers and a trailer from a site known as Worshippers Way, police said. Five settlers who refused to go were arrested, police said.

Since November, when an Islamic Jihad ambush in the area killed 12 security guards and soldiers, settlers have repeatedly tried to set up an illegal outpost.

Under intense US pressure to implement its road map to peace, Israel has dismantled several West Bank outposts but has failed to freeze construction at established settlements and to remove dozens of other illegal outposts as the plan demands.

Palestinians also have yet to dismantle militant groups as the road map demands. Since Tuesday’s bus bombing, Israel has stepped up its military campaign, citing the Palestinian Authority’s failure to arrest militants and dismantle the “terror” infrastructure.