The Palestinian militant group Hamas vowed yesterday to avenge the death of another activist in a helicopter strike hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the army to prevent the group from firing rockets.
"Our mujahedeen (holy warriors) will avenge our martyr as soon as possible to ensure that the Zionists pay the price," said a statement from the group's armed wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades.
Hamdi Kalakh, 24, was killed in the air strike while riding his donkey cart near the southern town of Khan Yunis late Thursday, in the fourth attack on Hamas militants in the past week. Three bystanders were wounded.
His killing appeared to be Israeli retaliation for a Qassam rocket being fired on the outskirts of the major port city of Ashkelon, the first time an improvised rocket fired from the Gaza Strip had reached so far into Israel.
An Israeli military spokesman said that "explosives expert" Kalakh had been preparing an imminent Qassam attack against the nearby Gush Katif Jewish settlement bloc.
"Kalakh was responsible for the repeated firing of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds at Israeli targets in and outside of the Gaza Strip as well as planting roadside bombs," he said.
"The targeting of Kalakh is in line with Israel Defense Force policy to operate against the Hamas terror infrastructure."
The helicopter strike came hours after Sharon ordered the army to take "all necessary measures" to prevent Hamas from firing rockets.
The army staged an incursion several hundred metres into north Gaza earlier to level trees which it said had been used as cover to launch a Qassam rocket which landed in an industrial zone of Ashkelon, without causing any injuries.
The Israeli army has launched a series of attacks on Hamas figures since the group bombed a bus in Jerusalem which killed 21 people on Aug. 19.
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad formally ended a seven-week ceasefire last week after Hamas co-founder Ismail Abu Shanab was killed in a retaliatory Israeli air strike in Gaza City.
The latest spiral of violence has stalled progress on a US-backed roadmap for peace. Washington again called on the Palestinian authorities to target hardliners in the wake of the attack on Ashkelon.
"The real solution is for the Palestinian security forces to actively and effectively patrol northern Gaza to prevent the firing of Qassam rockets," said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan.
"We hope that Israel will work with the Palestinian Authority to get this done."
The US has been urging Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to cede control of the myriad Palestinian security services to Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas.
The Israeli government has been unimpressed by the Palestinians' efforts against groups such as Hamas so far, and has pledged to continue targeting hardliners in the absence of firm action from the Palestinians.
The Palestinian leadership made their most substantial move to date against the hardline groups on Thursday, freezing bank accounts of charities linked to Hamas and firing at activists who had launched the rockets into Israel.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov said yesterday that he had been impressed by Abbas's intention to "take decisive steps to maintain a ceasefire and neutralize the activities of extremists."
Fedotov, who met Abbas and his foreign minister, Nabil Shaath, on Thursday, said this "should help move forward to implementing the next stages of the international quartet's plan," according to the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency.
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