MIDDLE EAST: Israel killed the top bombmaker for Islamic Jihad and another top gunman in an air raid in Gaza City yesterday, hours after an Israeli and three other militants died separately in a fresh surge of Middle East violence.
Witnesses said Israeli aircraft fired two missiles that blew up two vehicles, killing Adnan Bustan (28), the head of Islamic Jihad's unit that produces rockets and explosives, and Jihad al-Sawafiri (31), who led a rocket firing squad.
Islamic Jihad had claimed responsibility for one of the worst recent rocket strikes from Gaza on Israel, in which three Israelis were wounded, including a baby, on Friday.
The group quickly vowed to avenge the Israeli strike.
"We will burn the ground and respond everywhere," said Abu Dujana, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad.
An Israeli army spokesman said "the air force attacked two vehicles in the northern Gaza Strip carrying Islamic Jihad terrorists who were responsible for projectile rocket attacks against Israel".
Hours before, a Palestinian stabbed to death an Israeli woman and wounded five other passengers on a minibus in central Israel, an attack that came after an Israeli gunship killed three militants in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel announced yesterday it would transfer $54 million (€454.8 million) in tax revenues to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority that it had frozen, but said the future transfer of funds would be reviewed if a Hamas-led government were formed.
In the wake of Hamas's election victory last month, Israel had held up the payment of the taxes and customs duties it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, but acting Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert decided yesterday to transfer the funds.
Ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting, however, agreed the arrangement would be reviewed on a monthly basis.
Defence officials advised Mr Olmert to hand over the monies to the Palestinians, in order to prevent the collapse of the Palestinian Authority.
The officials also told the acting premier that freeing up the funds would add weight to Israel's demand that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas disarm Hamas.
"We have no interest in harming the daily life of the Palestinians," Mr Olmert said.
The Israeli leader, who is in the midst of an election campaign and is susceptible to attacks from the right, was careful to emphasise that all previous governments, regardless of their political make-up, had transferred the funds to the Palestinians. "We have ways of ensuring that it [ the funding] goes to the places it is supposed to go to," he said.
Additional reporting: Reuters