Hamas is vowing to mount "huge martyrdom operations" in response to day-long Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip yesterday, in which at least 14 Palestinians, many of them gunmen, were killed.
Among the dead was a top Hamas leader alleged to have orchestrated a recent suicide bombing and an attack on an American diplomatic convoy. In a departure from recent practice, official Palestinian television and radio stations were last night broadcasting messages hailing "the martyrs" and demands for an immediate response "deep in the Zionist entity".
The Gaza death toll was one of the heaviest in months and underlined that, while Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been talking of an Israeli withdrawal from the densely populated strip, for now Israel's military presence remains unmistakeable.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Korei called yesterday's Israeli raids a "crime" and said "these killings have to end if the peace process is to continue."
An Israeli spokesman said the army was "on search missions for terrorists" and trying to "thwart continued mortar and missile attacks at Israeli targets."
Two mortar shells were fired at an Israeli settlement and Hamas fired eight of its Qassam rockets across the border into Israel after the troops had pulled back; there were no reports of casualties.
The fighting lasted from before dawn until well into the afternoon, and was concentrated mainly in Gaza City's Shaja'iyeh neighbourhood, where the overwhelming majority of the fatalities occurred.
Troops faced off against masked gunmen, with large numbers of Palestinian children watching the fighting. At one point, TV footage captured one armed and masked Palestinian carrying a young Palestinian by the leg out of the battle zone.
Palestinian officials said several of the dead were armed gunmen, but others were civilians.
The Israeli army said that all of those killed had been armed.
Among the dead was Mohammed Hilles (17), son of the head of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction in Gaza. Also killed was a bodyguard of the Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and Hani Abu Skhaila, who is suspected of orchestrating January's suicide bombing at the Erez border crossing, in which four Israelis were killed.
At funerals later yesterday, Hamas leaders warned Israel to "prepare body bags". A Hamas spokesman, Mahmoud a-Zahar, declared that "the whole Palestinian people will react".