ISRAEL: Two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were killed during a raid early yesterday by Israeli forces and another three narrowly escaped after scampering from their car seconds before it was obliterated by three missiles fired by Israeli Apache helicopters. From Peter Hirschberg, in Jerusalem
Palestinian officials reported that Israel had tried to assassinate three members of the armed wing of the militant Islamic Jihad movement, who were in a car near the northern Gaza refugee camp of Jabalya yesterday afternoon.
Witnesses said the three fled their car after hearing the helicopters overhead. Moments later their car was a charred wreck. One of the men was slightly injured, as were three passers-by, including a Palestinian policeman and a 14- year-old boy.
Islamic Jihad said one of its field commanders was the target of the Israeli attack. There was no official comment from the military.
In the course of the raid in northern Gaza, which began on Saturday night when 30 tanks and armoured vehicles, backed by two attack helicopters, thrust into northern Gaza, troops demolished the homes of three Islamic militants who security sources said had carried out attacks on Israelis.
One of the homes belonged to the family of a suicide bomber who blew himself up on a bus in Tel Aviv in 1996, killing 20 people.
During the raid, gunmen exchanged fire with troops. The Israeli army said one of the two men killed had been firing at troops. However Palestinians said the man was a 32-year-old bystander, hit by Israeli fire as he stood on his balcony.
After the Israeli forces withdrew, residents found the body of a 70-year-old man, who they said had apparently not heard the calls by Israeli troops to evacuate the home and was buried under the rubble after army bulldozers demolished it.
Security forces were on high alert in several parts of Israel yesterday after receiving warnings of possible terror attacks.
Meanwhile, a member of the Fatah party of Palestinian Authority president Mr Yasser Arafat, said talks with Hamas would resume in Cairo later this month in an attempt to bring about a halt to suicide attacks inside Israel.
Talks in the Egyptian capital last month between the two groups ended without an agreement.