Israel killed a top Islamic Jihad militant in an airstrike just hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he hopes to reach a full peace deal with Israel in less than a year.
Three Gaza airstrikes on Thursday killed five Palestinians, including the military leader of the Islamic Jihad there. He was one of three killed when a missile fired from an Israeli aircraft incinerated a jeep in southern Gaza City.
The upended skeleton of the vehicle turned into a battleground between Islamic Jihad and Hamas forces following a dispute over items inside, witnesses said.
At least three militants were wounded in a rare open battle between the two Islamic extremist groups. Hamas overran Gaza last month and took power there.
Islamic Jihad is behind most of the daily rocket barrages from Gaza at nearby Israeli towns and Israel has been pursuing its militants and rocket squads in frequent airstrikes.
Despite the Gaza violence, Abbas said he hopes to reach a full peace deal with Israel within a year.
At the same time, aides to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert confirmed he wants to formulate a declaration detailing what a Palestinian state in Gaza and most of the West Bank would look like.
However, the aides hinted that it would leave out the most difficult issues, such as final borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
A key Olmert ally said yesterday that Israel should withdraw from most of the West Bank in a deal with the Palestinians.
Haim Ramon, Israel's vice premier and one of the politicians closest to Olmert, told Israel Radio that he supported a withdrawal from "most" of the West Bank, "except for large settlement blocs."
He suggested NATO forces could replace Israeli troops in the areas evacuated.
"In my eyes, the occupation of the territories threatens our very existence, our legitimacy and our international standing," Ramon said in the radio interview.
Meanwhile, Israel's naval commander Admiral David Ben Bashat resigned earlier than expected, the army announced yesterday amid continued fallout from last summer's Lebanon war.
Ben Bashat served the regulation three years, but as a commanding officer was entitled to remain in the job for an extra year. As a result, his decision to go was widely linked to naval failures during the 34-day war with Hezbollah.
Israeli chief of staff General Gaby Ashkenazi accepted his decision and thanked Ben Bashat for his 37 years in the service.
Ben Bashat's departure comes after army chief of staff Dan Halutz resigned in January and after defense minister Amir Peretz lost his job. Both had been heavily criticized for their performance during the July-August war.
The navy also came under bitter criticism after Hezbollah fired an Iranian-made missile into one of its ships, the INS Hanit, off Beirut last July 14, killing four sailors and causing extensive damage to the corvette.
A military investigation found that the navy was completely unaware that Hezbollah had such a weapon and had not taken the appropriate precautions.
The outgoing navy Seals' commander also wrote a stinging letter to Ben Baashat after the war, expressing dissatisfaction with his wartime leadership.
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