Hamas threatened revenge after an Israeli helicopter blew up a car on a busy Gaza City street, killing a Hamas militant who was involved in making and firing rockets at Israeli towns.
Six bystanders were wounded, two of them seriously, hospital officials said.
The missile struck Khaled Abu Shamiyeh, 30, as he was riding in his car in Gaza City.
Abu Shamiyeh was the head of Hamas in Gaza's Sheik Radwan neighborhood, and was involved in building homemade Qassam rockets, the army said.
Omar Arfa, 52, who owns a fast food stand in Gaza City, said the street was full of cars when the helicopter fired the missile.
"A spark came from the sky, then there was a huge explosion in part of street," he said.
Hamas militants gathered at the hospital and called for revenge against Israel.
"Hamas will teach the enemy [Israel] a painful lesson," said Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri.
Israel has killed dozens of Palestinian militants and scores of bystanders in targeted attacks in four years of fighting. On Sept. 7, helicopters fired missiles at a Hamas training area, killing 14 militants. Hamas has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel.
In a separate incident in Gaza yesterday, the Israeli army killed an unarmed Palestinian who was approaching a military outpost near a Jewish settlement, the army said.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged on Sunday at his weekly Cabinet meeting to strike back at militants launching rockets from the Gaza Strip, saying the army would fire at them even if they are in residential areas.
"We have to think about how to act against the sources of the fire, after warning the civilians," Sharon was quoted as saying by Cabinet ministers in the meeting.
Hard-liners who oppose Sharon's "disengagement" plan to withdraw from all Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements say that a Gaza pullout would put more Israeli cities within range of Palestinian rockets.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of