Israeli helicopters attacked a Hamas training field in Gaza City early yesterday, killing at least 13 militants and wounding 25 other Palestinians, witnesses said, in the bloodiest incident there in four months.
In a statement, the Israeli military said the air force targeted a field Hamas used to assemble a large bomb and a suicide bomber's vest, practice hijacking vehicles and train in preparing and firing mortars and rockets. Israel frequently targets Palestinian militants in Gaza air strikes and other military operations.
There was pandemonium at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after midnight as the casualties arrived in ambulances and cars. Blood-spattered Palestinians carried dead and wounded into the emergency room, while others went straight to the morgue carrying plastic bags with body parts.
Hundreds of angry Palestinians, many of them members of the Hamas military wing with blood on their clothes, gathered outside, shouting "Revenge, revenge."
Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said, "This bloody crime is a new wave of aggression committed against our people and against our sons." He added, "It's an ongoing war. One day for us and one day for them."
Hamas claimed responsibility for a double suicide bombing in Israel's south last Tuesday, killing 16 Israelis. The bombers came from the West Bank city of Hebron.
There was some confusion over the number of dead because the blasts dismembered some of the bodies. One hospital official said 14 were killed. The first 11 identified were all Hamas members in their 20s, none of them senior figures.
A statement by the Hamas military wing said the Israeli military struck a "scouts camp where a group of fighters was training" and pledged revenge.
With smoke rising from the field in the Shajaiyeh section of Gaza City, a known Hamas stronghold, Palestinians were seen searching the blacked-out area with candles and flashlights, looking for victims.
The Israeli statement said training at the site "was led by senior Hamas terrorists who were involved in the carrying out of deadly terror attacks and attempted attacks."
The military said the suicide bomb prepared at the site was discovered last Tuesday in the underwear of a Palestinian at the Erez checkpoint between Gaza and Israel.
The air strike was the bloodiest incident in Gaza City since May. In a week of heavy fighting in the city then, 31 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers were killed.
The violence came as Israel prepared for its planned pullout from Gaza next year. According to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" plan, Israel is to evacuate all 21 Gaza settlements and pull its soldiers out of the territory.
Palestinian groups have been stepping up their attacks to try to show that they're driving the Israelis out, and the Israelis are hitting the militants to counter that claim.
Sharon's plan hit a minor snag when Israel's civil service commissioner ruled that an office set up to deal with compensation for settlers to be evacuated is operating without authorization.
The commissioner noted that the office has no approved budget, and without that, its 10 clerks cannot be officially hired. The hitch appeared to be a minor technical matter, but settler activists hotly opposed to the pullout grasped at it as evidence that Sharon's plan is improper.
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