Israeli commandos kill Hamas fugitive

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli soldiers killed a top Hamas fugitive in a roadside ambush Monday, and in a separate operation, raided a stronghold of the militant Islamic group, shooting dead two Palestinians and blowing up the house of a suspected bombmaker.\nThe two Israeli strikes came in response to a deadly Hamas attack on an Israeli tank over the weekend. Israel said it will intensify its hunt for Hamas militants, who have carried out many of the bombings and other attacks against Israeli targets in the past 29 months of fighting.\nThe Hamas fugitive, Riyad Abu Zeid, 32, was shot and seriously wounded when undercover troops, hiding in a van loaded with vegetables, fired on his black Honda traveling along Gaza's coastal road, witnesses said. Troops apprehended Abu Zeid, who died on the way to an Israeli hospital, the military said.\nA Palestinian taxi driver, who gave only his first name, Mohammed, said there were two Palestinian men in the Honda, both taken away by the Israeli military. One man apparently was killed at the scene, the other injured, he said.\nThe identity of the second man was not immediately known.\nThe army described Abu Zeid, 32, as a senior member of Hamas' military wing who had organized attacks against Israeli targets in the Gaza Strip and suicide bombings inside Israel. He was planning additional attacks, the army said in a statement, without giving details.\nIsraeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Sunday that troops would strike harder against Hamas, including with targeted attacks on militants. On Saturday, Hamas activists set off a roadside bomb in Gaza that hit a tank and killed four soldiers.\n"There will be no immunity, there will be no sanctuary, not in Gaza ... not in any other place," said Raanan Gissin, an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.\nThe Israeli daily Haaretz said troops were poised for a major strike in Gaza, but will stop short of reoccupying the strip of more than 1 million Palestinians.\nIn all, 14 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during a 24-hour period from midday Sunday to midday Monday, including six Hamas members who died in an unexplained explosion Sunday.\nThe fresh violence erupted amid new efforts to negotiate a cease-fire and resume peace talks. Israel and the Palestinians sent delegations to London on Monday to meet with members of the so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators -- the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia -- who are trying to draft a plan to end the fighting and establish a Palestinian state.\nIsraeli officials did not rule out the possibility that Israeli and Palestinian delegates would meet in London, the first such meeting in many months.\nIn the other Israeli military operation in Gaza, about 35 tanks, escorted by helicopter gunships, entered the Sheik Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City early Monday morning.\nTroops surrounded the five-story family home of Ahmed Ghandour, a top aide to Hamas bombmaker Adnan al-Ghoul. Ghandour was responsible for planning the weekend attack on the Israeli tank.\nDuring the five-hour operation, Palestinian gunmen attacked Israeli soldiers, who returned fire. A Palestinian policeman and a suspected militant were killed, hospital officials said.