Attack aimed at militant kills bystander, wounds 26

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- An Israeli helicopter fired three missiles at the car of a Hamas fugitive Tuesday, killing a bystander and wounding at least 26, doctors and witnesses said.\nThe target of the attack, a member of the Hamas military wing, managed to flee before the missiles struck the vehicle, witnesses said. At the time of the strike, the car was stuck in a traffic jam just north of Gaza City, near the Jebaliya refugee camp.\nIt was the third Israeli missile strike in five days. Israel has said every Hamas militant is a potential target for liquidation in response to a Hamas bus bombing that killed 21 bus riders in Jerusalem last week.\nShadi Tayan, who owns a bookstore in the area, said "the people in the car jumped out and ran in two different directions" after one rocket hit near the front of the vehicle. After the men fled, two more missiles hit.\nThree men were in the car, including Wael Ekalan of the Hamas military wing, witnesses said.\nThe attack killed bystander Hassan Hamlawi, 65, who was sitting on the sidewalk outside his water pipe shop when the missiles hit nearby. At least 26 bystanders were wounded, doctors said. Among those hurt were four children, including an 8-year-old boy who was in critical condition, doctors said.\nJust minutes earlier, an Israeli gunboat fired two shells toward northern Gaza City, hitting an empty plot of land. Initial reports that several people were wounded in that attack could not be verified.\nThe Israeli military had no immediate comment on the assault.\nAlso Tuesday, Israeli soldiers disguised as Arabs raided a West Bank hospital before dawn and snatched two wounded Palestinian militants from their beds.\nTroops staging an arrest sweep in the city of Nablus jumped from the back of a truck and poured into Raffidiyeh Hospital from two sides. They declared a lock-down, confining nurses and doctors to a few rooms, and broke down an electrically operated door to the Intensive Care Unit.\nSoldiers armed with M-16 rifles asked a nurse to lead them to the wounded fugitives. They grabbed the militants' medical files and wheeled the men out on their hospital beds to waiting military ambulances.\nThe wanted men were driven to Israel's Beilinson Hospital near Tel Aviv and were being treated for moderate injuries, military sources said.\nIsrael accuses one of the men, Othman Younis, 27, of helping plan several attacks in which at least ten people were killed, including an Aug. 12 supermarket bombing that killed a father of two in central Israel. That bombing came in the midst of a cease-fire declared by militant groups on June 29.\nThe other fugitive, Fahid Bani-Odeh, 25, is wanted for shooting attacks. Both are "hardcore" members of Al Aqsa, said the group's spokesman, who goes by the name Abu Mujahed. He confirmed that Younis helped plan the suicide bombing.\nA two-month truce, which had reduced three years of violence, collapsed under last week's violence.\nSince the suicide bus bombing in Jerusalem, Israel has killed seven Hamas members, including a senior leader, in missile strikes, marking the renewal of Israel's policy to hunt and kill militants. Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon has made clear that all members of the militant group are targets for "liquidation."\nA missile strike on Gaza's beach front late Sunday forced senior Hamas members into hiding, while the group's spokesmen turned off their cellular phones. Hamas leaders were conspicuously absent from funerals Monday for four men killed in Sunday's missile strike.\nAlso Tuesday, Muslim-Jewish friction intensified at a disputed holy site in Jerusalem. Police arrested three Islamic officials after Muslim worshippers scuffled with police officers escorting Jewish visitors. In September 2000, deadly riots erupted at the shrine following a visit by then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon. The unrest escalated into three years of fighting.\nAfter Sharon's visit, the site was closed to visitors. It was reopened by police last week, with the initial acquiescence of the Islamic Trust, which administers the site.\nThe shrine is revered by Jews as the site of the biblical Jewish temples and by Muslims as the spot where Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. It is a potent symbol of rival claims on Jerusalem.\nThe U.S.-backed Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, scheduled a new round of talks with leaders of Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip. It appeared that leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were not invited. Abbas said last week, after the Jerusalem bus bombing, that he is boycotting the militant groups.\nAbbas's advisers have said he is hoping to negotiate a new cease-fire, this time making Israel a party to such a deal. Israel has said the Palestinians must live up to their obligations under the peace plan, including dismantling militant groups, and that it will continue hunting armed men until Palestinian security forces take action.\nBrig. Gen. Jibril Rajoub, a former West Bank security chief named by Arafat earlier this week to the vacant post of national security adviser, said Tuesday that both sides must cooperate.\n"We have to all think together how we are going to break the tension and put an end to the bloodshed," Rajoub told Israel Army Radio, speaking in Hebrew. "Part of it depends on us and the more important part depends on you and whether you are really willing to end the occupation."\nArafat fired Rajoub from his job as West Bank security chief after a violent argument in July 2002, but apparently brought him back in hopes of sidelining Abbas and his security chief Mohammed Dahlan. Rajoub and Dahlan have been rivals for years.\nSecretary of State Colin Powell last week appealed in vain to Arafat to give Abbas full authority over security.\nAbbas has been reluctant to crack down on militants, fearing it could spark civil war. He has appealed to Arafat to give him control of the key security branches, something he says is necessary to confront the militant groups.