ISRAEL: Israel continued to step up its military action in the Gaza Strip yesterday, with undercover troops killing a senior Hamas militant and demolishing the home of a second. But it also emerged that Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon had recently held talks with a senior Palestinian official, writesPeter Hirschberg.
Soldiers operating near the El-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza jumped out of a van and descended on the black Honda carrying Mr Riyad Abu Zeid, a senior member of the military wing of the militant Hamas group.
According to the army, troops shot and critically injured the 33-year-old after he opened fire from his car, and he died while being evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in Israel. Palestinians accused Israel of "assassinating" Mr Abu Zeid.
The escalating Israeli operations in Gaza follow the killing on Saturday of four Israeli soldiers when a 100kg bomb blew up under their tank in the Strip. On Sunday, six Hamas members were killed in an explosion there.
It was still not clear yesterday whether Israel was behind the blast, or whether it was the result of militants mishandling explosives.
In a pre-dawn raid yesterday, troops and armoured vehicles thrust into northern Gaza and demolished the home of another senior Hamas member, Mr Ahmed Ghandour, whom Israel accuses of being behind the tank attack.
Two Palestinians were killed in a firefight with troops during the operation.
Government sources said yesterday that Mr Sharon had recently met Palestinian Finance Minister Mr Salam Fayad at his Jerusalem residenc.
Mr Sharon, who refuses to talk to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mr Yasser Arafat, said before his late-January electoral triumph that he planned to engage Palestinian leaders. Some commentators, however, have suggested that the Prime Minister's recent meetings with top Palestinian officials might be part of a ploy to lure the reluctant, centre-left Labor Party into a governing coalition.