Two Palestinians killed in Israeli air strike

Israeli missiles hit a car in the Gaza Strip, killing two top militants, drawing threats of reprisals and further compromising Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas ’ efforts to restore calm and take control of the volatile seaside territory.

But while vowing revenge for the attack, Hamas, the largest militant group, said it would not go back to all-out war against Israel. “Hamas is committed to the calm,” spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said today, referring to an informal truce militants agreed to in February.

In the West Bank early today, an Israeli soldier was killed during a roundup of militants near Jenin, the army spokesman said. A suspected militant had surrendered to troops when shots were fired from a field, hitting one of the soldiers in the head and killing him, the army said.

More than a week of violence, including Israeli assassinations of militants and a Palestinian suicide bombing and rocket attacks, has hurt hopes for a return to peacemaking following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in September.

In the airstrike yesterday, missiles slammed into a car carrying Hassan Madhoun , a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a violent offshoot of Abbas’ Fatah party, and Fawzi Abu Kara of Hamas, turning it into a twisted ball of metal scraps.

Madhoun helped to plan three bombing attacks that killed 20 Israelis since 2004, including a blast in Israel’s Ashdod port, the army said. Hamas and the military said Abu Kara was skilled in manufacturing rockets and explosives.

Just minutes before the strike, Abbas’ convoy had travelled on the road on his way to Gaza City, his bodyguards said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said today that operations against militants would stop once Abbas, widely known as Abu Mazen, decides to disarm them.

“We said very clearly that if we leave Gaza, any (militant) operation would draw a very tough Israeli reaction,” Shalom said.

“If Abu Mazen would make the strategic decision that he has refused to make, to dismantle terror organisations and prevent them from carrying out activity from the Gaza Strip, believe me, on that same day all the operations in Gaza will stop.”