ISRAEL: Five Palestinian gunmen were killed when their car exploded yesterday in the Gaza Strip, as a Palestinian leader said that a request for a moratorium on assassinations had been rejected by Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon.
Palestinians blamed the deaths on Israel - four of the men were killed in the vehicle, and the fifth was standing nearby - saying the car had been hit by a missile. Israeli officials declined to comment publicly on the incident, but security sources, who refused to be named, confirmed that the Israeli military had carried out the attack.
Several hours after the explosion, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical faction of the PLO, identified the five as members of its military wing and vowed revenge. "Retaliation will come very soon and will shake the land under the feet of the occupiers," read a leaflet released by the organisation. Palestinian Authority chairman, Mr Yasser Arafat, told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, that the deaths were a clear sign that Israel "does not want calm. It wants the continuation of the escalation against our mighty people".
The latest bloodshed comes as a new round of Israeli-Palestinian contacts aimed at forging a cease-fire are underway. Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, has been meeting the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Mr Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala), in an effort to forge a truce-to-talks formula, that includes Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state on some 42 per cent of the West Bank.
Mr Sharon also met top-level PA officials last week, but Palestinian Information Minister, Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, said yesterday the Israeli leader had turned down a request that Israel suspend targeted killings of Palestinian militants for a period of at least 10 days, to give the Palestinian security forces an opportunity to douse the violence.
Israel has killed several dozen Palestinian militants since the intifada uprising began 16 months ago, and the killing of a senior member of Mr Arafat's Fatah faction last month shattered a period of relative calm, sparking a series of Palestinian attacks inside Israel.
Israel's policy of targeted killings has come in for increasing domestic criticism.