Hamas Vows Revenge Against Israel
An estimated 50,000 Palestinians attended a mass funeral in the Gaza Strip Tuesday for 14 militants killed in an Israel helicopter attack on a Hamas training camp early Tuesday.
It was one the deadliest air strikes since fighting broke out four years ago, and Hamas said it would continue the tit-for-tat escalation.
Israel's attack came a week after Hamas suicide bombers blew up two buses in the Israeli city of Beersheba, killing 16 people.
Israel had vowed harsh retaliation, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger, and Hamas in turn promised revenge of its own for the Gaza strikes.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said retaliation would be inevitable.
"No crime goes unpunished," Qurei said at a meeting of the Palestinian cabinet. "For sure there will be retaliation and the retaliation will be justified."
On Tuesday, Israeli forces cut main Gaza roads in two places, dividing the crowded seaside territory into three parts — a common step after incidents of violence. The Israelis say it's a security measure, but Palestinians, banned from traveling from one part of Gaza to another, call it collective punishment.
Hours after the attack, Palestinian militants fired mortars and homemade rockets at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and the border town of Sderot. One Israeli in Sderot was lightly wounded in a rocket attack, rescue officials said.
The army said it struck a field where "senior Hamas terrorists" had trained militants to fire mortars and rockets. In the past month, Hamas assembled a large bomb and a suicide bomber's explosives belt at the training camp, the army added.
In Gaza City, children stayed home from school Tuesday and shops remained closed in a sign of mourning. Black smoke billowed over the city as students burned tires at spontaneous demonstrations.
Some 50,000 people, including dozens of gunmen from Hamas and other militant groups, joined a funeral procession Tuesday afternoon in Gaza City. As militants fired machine guns into the air, the crowd screamed for revenge.
"Our response to this crime is coming, God willing. and our twin attack in Beersheba is only one part of many strikes to come," a Hamas militant screamed over loud speakers mounted on a car.
Qureia said the strike undermined efforts to bring peace to the area, noting that it came a day after Egyptian officials visited the West Bank. Israel is planning to withdraw from Gaza next year, and Egypt has stepped in as a mediator to ensure security in the area after the pullout.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refuses to negotiate directly with the Palestinians, saying they are not a serious peace partner.
Since the current round of fighting with the Palestinians broke out in September 2000, Israel has frequently targeted militants through air strikes and other military operations.
But the strikes are usually aimed at very specific targets — usually senior militants or activists on their way to an attack. Last spring, Israeli killed Hamas' spiritual leader and his successor in separate strikes three weeks apart.
This policy, which Israel calls "targeted killings," has enraged the Palestinians and drawn international criticism, especially because of frequent civilian casualties.
Tuesday's attack was the first time the army has targeted such a large gathering of militants.
In the deadliest air strike, an Israeli F-16 warplane killed a Hamas leader, Salah Shehadeh, along with 14 others, including nine children in July 2002.
Last October, 14 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli missile strike in a Gaza refugee camp. Palestinians said only two of the dead were militants; Israel put the figure much higher.
In Tuesday's attack, the dead were all identified as Hamas militants. At least five helicopter missiles pounded the camp in the Shajaiyeh section of Gaza City, a known Hamas stronghold, just after midnight.
"No one is immune when he carries out terrorist attacks against innocent Israeli civilians," said Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.
There was pandemonium at Gaza's Shifa Hospital as casualties arrived in ambulances and cars. Blood-spattered Palestinians carried dead and wounded into the emergency room, while others went straight to the morgue carrying plastic bags with body parts.
Hundreds of angry Palestinians, many of them members of the Hamas military wing with blood on their clothes, gathered outside shouting for revenge.
The Hamas military wing said Israel had struck a "scouts camp where a group of fighters was training" and pledged revenge.
While Israel described the site as a terrorist camp, the air strike also appeared to be linked to last week's suicide bombing in Beersheba, even though the bombers had come from the West Bank. Israel has historically carried out harsh retaliation following deadly attacks on its citizens.
In a separate incident in Gaza, Israeli troops fired at the Khan Younis refugee camp, critically injuring a 10-year-old girl who was walking home from school, Palestinian hospital officials said.
Military officials said they had exchanged fire with militants in the area, but had no information on a girl being hit.
Violence has increased in the Gaza Strip since Sharon announced plans this year to evacuate all Gaza settlements and four West Bank enclaves. Sharon hopes to carry out the pullout next year.
Palestinian groups are vying for control ahead of the planned pullout and have stepped up attacks to give the impression that they are driving Israel out of the territory. Israel, in the meantime, has increased its strikes so the pullout will not look like a victory for the militants.
Meanwhile, in the wake of legal problems, Israel is rerouting its controversial security barrier in the southern West Bank along the pre-1967 border, reports Berger.
This follows rulings by Israel's Supreme Court and the World Court in the Hague, which warned Israel against confiscating occupied West Bank land to build the fence. Israeli hawks are outraged. They say the high court is implementing the longtime Arab demand that Israel return to the 1967 borders.