Israel takes revenge for soldiers' deaths

Israel confirmed its helicopters targeted a Palestinian militant involved in the death of six Israeli soldiers and Israeli media described the attack today as a vengeance killing for flaunting the severed head of an Israeli victim.

Israeli helicopters blasted the car in Gaza City, killing two militants, as thousands of Palestinians demonstrated nearby, demanding that Yasser Arafat put an end to corruption in his administration.

The two events late last night were tied indirectly to Israel’s plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip next year. The “unilateral disengagement” plan has set off power struggles among the Palestinians, while Israel has stepped up its military activity to try to show it is not being driven out of Gaza.

The car was driving through the crowded Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City when it exploded, killing the two men inside. The Islamic Jihad identified them as its members and said one was a local field commander. The group is responsible for many bloody attacks against Israelis.

Israeli security officials said the target of the attack was Hazem Rahim, a local Islamic Jihad commander who seized the body parts of Israeli soldiers killed when a roadside bomb destroyed their armoured personnel carrier on May 11 in the same neighbourhood.

Rahim was involved in several attacks against Israelis, but the daily Yediot Ahronot said “the act that sealed his fate in Israeli eyes was the desecration of the remains of dead Israeli soldiers”.

Television reporters said Rahim seized the head of one soldier and waved it before their cameras. He later tried to negotiate the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for seized parts of the Israeli casualties. The parts were returned with the help of Egyptian mediation.

The army said one of the militants in the car was planning an attack against Israelis.

According to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan, Israel is to evacuate all 21 Israeli settlements and withdraw forces from the crowded, poverty-stricken seaside territory by late next year.