Israeli Airstrike Kills Top Hamas Militant
An Israeli missile hit an apartment building in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, collapsing the five-story building and damaging several adjacent buildings, and killing a leading Hamas militant and at least 14 other Palestinians, including several children.
Palestinian doctors say 154 people were injured.
Hamas, calling the attack a massacre, is vowing to take swift revenge against any and all Israeli targets.
The Israeli army, defending the attack, says the Hamas leader it killed - military wing founder Sheikh Salah Shehada - was "behind hundreds of terrorist attacks carried out over the past two years against the Israeli military and Israeli civilians."
The missile strike came at a delicate time in Palestinian-Israeli relations with the sides trading ideas to relieve tensions in the West Bank.
Shehada was killed along with his wife, their 14-year-old daughter, and a bodyguard.
CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger reports Shehada was number one on Israeli's most wanted list and had rejected calls from moderate Palestinians to halt suicide bombings. He was 40 years old and spent some 15 years as a Palestinian militant leader, was active in the 1987 uprising, and spent some time in Israeli jails.
"Hamas mourns the hero, the leader, Salah Shehada," said Hamas spokesman Ismail Haniyeh. "Anyone who dreams of so-called peace is mistaken. There is nothing called 'peace with Israel.'"
Another Hamas spokesman, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, delivered a promise of vengeance.
"This is a massacre against our people," said al-Rantissi. "Retaliation is coming and everything is considered a target. Hamas' retaliation will come very soon, and there won't be only just one (attack)... After this crime, even Israelis in their homes will be the target of our operations."
Israeli foreign ministry official Gideon Meir expressed regret for the civilian deaths, which have sparked criticism from United Nations chief spokesman Fred Eckhard.
He says Israel failed to take all measures to avoid the loss of innocent life "in using a missile against an apartment building. The Secretary-General (Kofi Annan) calls on the government of Israel to halt such actions and to conduct itself in a manner that is fully consistent with international humanitarian law."
Responding to that, Meir said Israeli children have been killed in Palestinian suicide bombings.
"I do expect the Secretary-General to understand that Israel's actions come out of self-defense," said Meir. "This was a precise Israeli air strike against a known terrorist responsible for hundreds of attacks on innocent Israelis in the past few years."
The Palestinian Authority accused the Israelis of trying to "sabotage the international efforts to pressure the Israeli government to withdraw troops ... and to get back to negotiations."
Jamal Halaby, a Palestinian police officer who lives nearby, said he saw the missile streaking across the sky, and then he heard a huge explosion. "I fell out of my bed and I found myself a minute later covered in dust and stones, and the sounds of my children screaming and crying."
The force of the blast reduced the building and three adjoining houses into rubble and blew out windows in buildings more than 500 yards away, scattering debris in all directions.
Firefighters searching frantically among the rubble for victims took a spotlight from a local camera crew to illuminate the area.
Outside the hospital, about 4,000 Palestinians chanted anti-Israel slogans and vowed revenge, some of them firing automatic rifles into the air.
The Hamas military wing has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks against Israelis during nearly two years of fighting, including many suicide bomb attacks. Also, Hamas has been behind almost daily mortar attacks on Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
The air strike followed two Palestinian attacks last week that put an end to a month-long respite in fatal Palestinian strikes against Israeli civilians, the longest such period since the current round of violence began in September 2000.
Nine Israelis were killed in a Palestinian ambush on a bus in the West Bank on July 16. The next day, two Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up in Tel Aviv, killing three bystanders.
Earlier Monday, the two sides appeared to be moving toward easing months of tensions. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres had said that the army was prepared to withdraw from two West Bank towns, Bethlehem and Hebron, as long as they remained quiet and if the Palestinians assumed control of security.
A top member of Hamas had said the group was considering stopping suicide attacks if Israel withdraws; and an Israeli official said the government was looking into resuming security cooperation with the Palestinians after it pulls out.
However, more hawkish elements of Israel's government expressed deep skepticism about the possibility of reaching any deal that would hold. They suggested that Israel would remain in the Palestinian towns for a considerable time - even after Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was no longer in power - and suffice for now with efforts to aid the population there.