Israel signalled today it had resumed an assassination policy against militants from the Islamic Jihad group, confirming Palestinian reports of a failed Israeli missile strike in Gaza yesterday.
“There was an attempt in Gaza to intercept an (Islamic Jihad) activist yesterday. It was unsuccessful,” Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra said on Army Radio, without naming the militant. “Any means to neutralise the organisation are relevant and possible.“
Ezra said “an opportunity had presented itself” and Israel targeted the militant while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were meeting in Jerusalem yesterday.
Sharon had suspended such attacks after declaring a truce with Abbas in February.
Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, warned of "terrible consequences" if Israel carried out assassinations.
"This decision is meant to escalate violence against our people. The calm would thereby end. We will not be dictated to by Israel," he told Reuters in Gaza.
At the Jerusalem summit, Sharon complained to Abbas that the moderate Palestinian leader was doing little to rein in gunmen from whom he wrung a pledge of "calm" after he won election in January on a platform of non-violence and peace negotiations.
"The attempt yesterday to kill an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza signalled the resumption of the targeted killing policy," an Israeli security source told Reuters.
"The Palestinian Authority is doing nothing, so the only way to stop this is for us to launch a big operation of targeted killings and arrests of Islamic Jihad operatives."
Israeli troops rounded up 52 suspected Islamic Jihad militants in the West Bank hours before the summit and another 11 were picked up early today, the army said.
In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, residents pointed to a damaged building and a crater with metal fragments they said came from an Israeli missile launched from an aircraft.
Israeli air forces drones have been hovering at low altitude over Gaza since Monday evening in an indication of preparedness for renewed lightning strikes on militants.
Other militant groups including the most powerful, Hamas, have generally respected the truce deal and the level of violence is much lower than during the Palestinian revolt launched in occupied Gaza and the West Bank in 2000.