Israeli troops raiding a Gaza refugee camp arrested a Hamas founder yesterday, targeting the political leadership of the Islamic militant group for the first time in 29 months of fighting. Eight Palestinians, among them a pregnant woman, were killed in clashes in the camp.
Troops also blew up four homes in the Bureij camp, including that of Hamas co-founder Mohammed Taha, 65, who was wounded in clashes with soldiers, the army said. Several adjacent houses and a mosque were damaged by the blasts.
Taha's five sons -- all senior Hamas activists -- were also arrested. One son, Ayman, who was also wounded yesterday, is the assistant of the top Hamas bombmaker and No. 1 on Israel's wanted list, Mohammed Deif, the army said.
Mohammed Taha founded Hamas in 1987, along with the group's spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Since then, the group has emerged as Yasser Arafat's biggest political rival. Mohammed and Ayman Taha were among some 400 suspected Islamic militants deported to Lebanon for a year by Israel in 1992.
Since the outbreak of fighting in September 2000, Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in bombings and shootings. In response, Israel has rounded up many Hamas activists, including leaders of the military wing, but has not targeted the political leadership, instead hitting installations of the Palestinian security forces.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said on Sunday the military would step up strikes against Hamas. "We want to arrive at a situation where the terror organizations invest more and more [effort] defending themselves," he said.
The Palestinians called for immediate US intervention. "I urge President Bush to condemn these crimes," Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said yesterday, referring to back-to-back army raids in Gaza this week.
Yesterday's incursion began at about 2am when jeeps and tanks backed by helicopters rolled into Bureij in central Gaza. Fierce fighting erupted, and hospital doctors said eight Palestinians were killed. Five were gunmen and three were civilians -- two boys, ages 14 and 16, and a 33-year-old woman who was in her ninth month of pregnancy.
The woman was killed when her house collapsed on her during the demolition of a nearby building, doctors and her family said. Six other family members were injured, including the woman's husband and two of her sons.
The army said it demolished four houses of militants, including the two-story Taha family home and the home of a suicide bomber. Hand grenades were thrown from the Taha house at soldiers who returned fire, wounding Mohammed and Ayman Taha before arresting them, the army said. In blowing up the house, troops damaged the outer wall of an adjacent mosque where Mohammed Taha was a preacher.
The military confirmed that soldiers entered the mosque, looking for weapons. A reporter touring the mosque saw windows smashed and bullet holes in the facade, apparently from Israeli helicopter fire; the mosque is in an alley too narrow for ground fighting. Several copies of the Koran, the Islamic holy book, were lying damaged on the floor. The army denied the damage was deliberate.
The demolition of the four homes severely damaged another 11 homes, rendering them uninhabitable and leaving about 150 people homeless, said the mayor of Bureij, Kamal Baghdadi.
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