MIDDLE EAST: Israeli officials confirmed yesterday that the chief bomb mastermind in the militant Hamas movement, whom they tried to kill for a second time this year in a missile attack on his car in the Gaza Strip, had again survived the assassination attempt and was most likely suffering from moderate injuries.
The officials said Mohammed Deif, whom they charge with responsibility for the deaths of dozens of Israeli civilians, had suffered a head wound and had likely lost an eye in Thursday's attack.
In the hours after Israeli helicopters fired two missiles at a Mercedes travelling in a built-up area of Gaza City, turning it into a mangled wreck, security sources said they were almost certain they had succeeded in killing Deif, whom they have been hunting for a decade.
However, Hamas officials quickly denied that the commander of their military wing in Gaza had been killed, with some insisting Deif had been moderately injured and others saying he had not been in the area of the strike at all.
"The reports I received from our people were that he was indeed injured but did not suffer a life-threatening injury," the Science Minister, Mr Matan Vilnai, who is a member of the security cabinet, said yesterday.
Two aides to Deif were killed in the strike and 45 bystanders were injured, including 15 youngsters. It is not the first time that civilians have been hit during an Israeli strike on leading Palestinian militants. Israel refers to the policy as "targeted killings", arguing that it is a vital means of protecting its citizens from men who are essentially ticking bombs.
Mr Vilnai said the military could have used a bomb big enough to ensure that Deif was killed, but then dozens of civilians would have been "vapourised".
Israel's policy has been strongly condemned by the international community. The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, deplored Thursday's strike and called on Israel to "halt such actions and conduct itself in a manner that is fully consistent with international humanitarian law".
Overnight on Thursday, Israeli troops shot and killed a Hamas militant in the West Bank city of Hebron.
In Ramallah, the army continued its siege of the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, but there were reports that Israel might soften its position and agree to a solution that does not entail the handing over of 20 militants holed up inside the wrecked compound.
In an interview yesterday in the daily Jerusalem Post, the Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, justified the siege on Mr Arafat's compound, saying it was meant "to prevent the Palestinian Authority, which is involved in terrorism, and the terror organisations it works with, including the Palestinian security forces, from committing and escalating their attacks ahead of a possible attack against Iraq".
Deaglán de Bréadúun writes: The latest Israeli attack in Gaza City has been condemned by the Minister for Foreign Affairs."This attack shows disregard for the opinion of the international community and an unwillingness to respect international law," Mr Cowen said in a statement.
While calling on the Palestinian Authority to "fulfill its obligations", he said there should be an immediate end to the siege of President Arafat's headquarters and to attacks on heavily populated civilian areas.