An Israeli air strike targeting a key figure in Palestinian rocket attacks killed 10 people yesterday, including the militant and an accomplice, two schoolchildren and three medical workers who rushed to the scene of an initial blast.
The deaths of eight civilians in the Gaza City attack was sure to heighten anti-Israel passions already inflamed by a blast on Friday in Gaza that killed eight beachgoers. It was also likely to further complicate efforts by moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to persuade the balking Hamas government to endorse a proposal implicitly recognizing Israel.
Abbas condemned the air strike as "state terrorism."
The deadly attack came hours after hundreds of police loyal to Abbas went on a rampage against the Hamas government, riddling the parliament building and Cabinet offices with bullets before setting them ablaze in retaliation for an attack by Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip. The rampage raised new fears the Palestinians were headed toward civil war.
The Israeli military said its aircraft targeted militants on a mission to launch Katyusha rockets at southern Israel. Palestinian witnesses said the first missile missed the vehicle, which then crashed into a curb and was struck by two other missiles.
The last two missiles killed the civilians and wounded 32 others. Also killed was Hamoud Wadiya, Islamic Jihad's top rocket launcher, and Shawki Sayklia, a militant whose affiliation wasn't immediately known.
"The Zionist enemy insists on shedding Palestinian blood and we insist on going ahead with our holy war and resistance," said Khader Habib, a group leader in Gaza. "God willing, the resistance groups ... will deliver a harsh response. All options are open."
Hekmat Mughrabi, tears streaming down her face and her veil soaked with blood, said her 30-year-old son, Ashraf, and a 13-year-old family member died when a missile hit the curb outside her home. She and her son were chatting on her bed when they heard the boom of the first missile. The young man ran to the door of the house after the initial explosion, seeking to calm down the family's children, who had been on the rooftop making paper kites during their summer vacation.
"He was shouting to the kids, `Don't be afraid, don't be afraid,'" and hadn't even finished his sentence when the second missile hit, she said. "My son died in my arms."
Shrapnel from the blast flew into the house, injuring several other family members, she added.
Outside her house was Wadiya's mangled yellow van, whose interior was a jumble of twisted metal and shredded upholstery. A white slipper lay in a pool of blood on the ground.
If the van was carrying Katyusha rockets as Israel said, that could explain why the army was so determined to stop it. Katyushas have a longer range than the homemade rockets usually fired by Gaza militants, and have only recently appeared in the coastal strip.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said yesterday that Israel would no longer exhibit restraint toward Palestinian militants involved in anti-Israel operations.
The violence on Monday night at the parliament building was the most serious in the West Bank since Hamas defeated Abbas' Fatah movement in legislative elections in January.
Late on Monday, hundreds of members of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security force shot out the windows of the parliament building before storming the two-building Cabinet complex, where they smashed furniture, destroyed computers and tore up documents. No casualties were reported.
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