Israel kills Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza airstrike

Israel killed a top Islamic Jihad militant in an airstrike just hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he hoped to reach a full peace deal with Israel in less than a year.

Three Gaza airstrikes yesterday killed five Palestinians, including the military leader of the Islamic Jihad there. He was one of three killed when a missile fired from an Israeli aircraft incinerated a vehicle in southern Gaza City.

The upended skeleton of the vehicle turned into a battleground between Islamic Jihad and Hamas forces following a dispute over items inside, witnesses said.

At least three militants were wounded in a rare open battle between the two Islamic extremist groups. Hamas overran Gaza last month and took power there.

Islamic Jihad is behind most of the daily rocket barrages from Gaza at nearby Israeli towns, and Israel has been pursuing its militants and rocket squads in frequent airstrikes.

Despite the Gaza violence, Mr Abbas said he hoped to reach a full peace deal with Israel within a year.

At the same time, aides to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert confirmed he wanted to formulate a declaration detailing what a Palestinian state in Gaza and most of the West Bank would look like.

However, they hinted that it would leave out the most difficult issues, such as final borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

A key Olmert ally today said Israel should withdraw from most of the West Bank in a deal with the Palestinians.

Haim Ramon, Israel’s vice premier and one of the politicians closest to Olmert, told Israel Radio he supported a withdrawal from “most” of the West Bank, “except for large settlement blocs”.

He suggested Nato forces could replace Israeli troops in the areas evacuated.

“In my eyes, the occupation of the territories threatens our very existence, our legitimacy and our international standing,” Ramon said in the radio interview.

Ramon would not specify the scope of the proposed pullout, but said a plan floated by Olmert before his election in 2006 for a unilateral pullout from 90 percent of the West Bank was no longer a possibility, “certainly not in one step.”