Two die in Israeli army raid

The Israeli army went into action tonight after being ordered by the government to assassinate Palestinian terror leaders.

Helicopter gunships fired missiles at a building and two cars in Gaza City, killing at least two people, just hours after the Security Cabinet approved an army plan to intensify targeted killings of Palestinian militants, including leaders, and send more troops into the Gaza Strip for ground operations

At least 14 people were injured, three critically, in the missile attack, hospital officials said. Among the badly injured was a two-year-old girl, they said.

The missiles destroyed the house and cars in the Nasser neighbourhood in northern Gaza City. It was not known who lived in the house.

The Israeli military said the target was a building where Islamic Jihad militants were present, and the militant group confirmed that.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat denounced the air strike. “What’s needed to break the vicious cycle of violence is not the mentality of revenge but mentality of reconciliation and negotiations,” he said.

The military campaign, which will last several weeks, is intended as retaliation for a double suicide bombing that killed 10 Israelis at the Ashdod seaport this week, the first deadly Palestinian attack on a strategic target in more than three years of fighting.

Since 2000, Israel has killed dozens of wanted Palestinians in air strikes and other attacks.

The army will also send more soldiers and tanks to the strip, for a series of raids of militant strongholds, the official said.

The campaign will be smaller in scale than Defence Shield, Israel’s massive military offensive in 2002, but will last for several weeks, the official said.

Asked whether an Israeli crackdown would be effective, Justice Minister Tommy Lapid said: “You never finish with terror. You can only fight terror.”

Said Siyam, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, warned that Israel would pay a heavy price for any military strike in the strip.

The strikes are also meant to increase pressure on militants, particularly the Islamic militant group Hamas, ahead of a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the security official said.

Both the militants and the Israeli military are trying to claim a possible pullback, part of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral “disengagement” plan, as a victory.

Armed groups are already bragging that they are forcing Israel out. Israel wants to avoid the impression of being seen as fleeing the strip.

Sharon has said he would go ahead with his unilateral plan if peace efforts remain frozen in coming months.

He never declared formally that he is abandoning attempts to negotiate a peace deal. However he told parliament on Monday that “there is no Palestinian leader with the courage, the ability, to struggle against terrorism” and that “clearly, in this situation, there will be no peace talks.”