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The armed wing of the militant Palestinian movement Hamas has vowed bloody retaliation for the killing of its leader and 14 civilians by an Israeli warplane.
"This massacre will not pass without a final punishment," the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades warned in a statement following the missile strike in Gaza City which killed their leader Salah Shehade.
"We will shatter Zionist bodies into pieces in every restaurant, every bus station, every bus," the group said, vowing to avenge Shehade's wife and daughter, also killed in the raid.
The spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, had earlier promised retaliation for the bloody operation. "We can no longer respond with words to the butchery perpetrated by Israel last night," Sheikh Yassin told the Qatar-based Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera. "Let action speak for itself."
In Tehran, another spokesman for the militant group, which has been a leading force in the 22-month-old Palestinian uprising, said it would use all means at its disposal to avenge the air strike.
"As long as Israel pursues its crimes, we will continue the resistance and the jihad [holy war] and we will not renounce any way, any method to achieve our goals," Mr Mahmud al-Zahar told Iranian state radio.
He confirmed the air strike spelled the end of tentative talks between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to curb the group's suicide bombings.
AFP