MIDDLE EAST: In a move that is sure to further complicate the job of new Palestinian Prime Minister Mr Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli forces stormed a Hamas stronghold in the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing 13 Palestinians, including a two-year-old toddler, two boys aged 13, and a 67-year-old man.
The raid began in the early hours of yesterday morning, as undercover troops, backed by tanks and missile-firing attack helicopters, thrust into the Sajayia neighbourhood in Gaza City, in a hunt for Yousef Abu Hein, who the army described as a top bombmaker. A fierce gunbattle - some described it as one of the fiercest in the Strip since the uprising began in September 2000 - erupted as hundreds of gunmen, many clad in black masks, confronted the invading forces with anti-tank missiles, grenades and homemade bombs.
During the raid, soldiers surrounded the home of the Abu Hein family and ordered the residents in the four-storey building to get out. But Yousef Abu Hein (31), and his two brothers, Ayman (29), and Mahmoud (38), refused to surrender and traded fire with Israeli forces. Troops then burst into the house and killed one of the brothers in a close-quarter shootout. They then removed another brother who was injured, and who later died of his wounds. Troops also removed the women and children inside. The third brother was killed later when Israeli tanks fired at the building.
The army said the three were central Hamas figures in Gaza, and were also behind the firing of rudimentary Qassam rockets from the Strip into Israel.
Eight of those killed were gunmen. Sixty-five Palestinians and nine Israeli soldiers were also injured in the raid, which lasted 13 hours.
The toddler, Amer Ayad, was killed when he was hit in the head by a bullet which pierced a window in his home, his father Ahmed said. "Is this the new peace President Bush promised?" he said, standing at the local morgue. "They wrote the answer using the blood of my son."
The raid began less than 12 hours after international mediators presented the "road map" peace plan to Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon and Mr Abbas, raising questions as to the Israeli leader's commitment to the US-backed blueprint. Aimed at ending 31 months of conflict, it calls for the Palestinian Authority to crack down on militant groups, on Israel to withdraw from Palestinian towns, and for the creation of an independent Palestinian state within three years.
The Palestinians charged that the Gaza raid was meant to torpedo the road map. Talking after the first meeting of the new Palestinian cabinet in Ramallah, Mr Mohammed Dahlan, who holds a senior security post in the government, said the Gaza operation was aimed at creating "more provocation, to push for more Palestinian reaction to the Israeli aggression". UN Secretary General Kofi Annan accused Israel of undermining the new Middle East peace drive by attacking the Gaza Strip.
Mr Annan believed such Israeli military incursions "contradict the international community's efforts to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process following yesterday's presentation of the 'road map' to the parties," UN spokesman Mr Fred Eckhard said.
Israeli military sources said the operation had been planned for earlier in the week, but had been delayed because of the swearing in of the new Palestinian government. According to the sources, the go-ahead for the operation was given after the suicide attack on Tuesday night in Tel Aviv, which they say emanated from Gaza.
Israeli officials have signalled that they are not prepared to suspend military actions against Palestinian militants as they wait for Mr Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, to move against the militias operating in the West Bank and Gaza.
"We can't wait until Abu Mazen gets his act together," said Mr Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Mr Sharon. "The faster he moves to halt terror, the quicker Israel will be able to halt these operations."
But as long as the raids continue, it will be almost impossible for the Palestinian prime minister to convince militant groups to lay down their arms. Even if they are halted, he still faces stiff resistance: Hamas has already made it clear to the him that it views the road map as tantamount to capitulation, and that it will continue with its suicide bomb campaign regardless.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, two Palestinian gunmen were killed in a clash with Israeli troops near the village of Yatta, south of Hebron.