Israel has pounded central Gaza City for a second day, as Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon faced growing calls from hardliners to get rid of Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat.
The strikes on a security compound - leaving 37 people injured - were apparently in retaliation for a Palestinian shooting attack in Beersheva in southern Israel yesterday that killed two female soldiers.
"Terrorism is on an upward spiral and that cannot continue for long. Reprisals are not enough, we need to attack the source of the terrorism and remove Arafat," said Finance Minister Mr Sylvan Shalom, of Sharon's rightist Likud Party.
But Palestinian cabinet minister Mr Imad al-Fallouji condemned the Israeli attack: "More bombings lead to more resistance. The Palestinian Authority has been doing its best to restore calm but as long as occupation exists, resistance will continue".
US-made Apache combat helicopters attacked a building of Mr Arafat's elite Force 17 guards and an office of the military intelligence. F-16 fighter-bombers then dropped three heavy bombs on the Palestinians' general intelligence offices.
Hundreds of Palestinians tried to free prisoners from a Gaza City jail after the Israeli air strike on the compound, but were dispersed by Palestinian police firing warning shots. More than 500 prisoners are held in the building, both political and criminal detainees.
Police said that leading Islamist hardliners and those accused of collaborating with Israel had been evacuated to safer premises as Israeli missiles came down on the Sarayeh prison compound, which is also Gaza's main security centre.
The mainly young Palestinian crowd retreated as guards fired shots over their heads then regrouped and resumed the assault, lobbing stones before being dispersed by sustained firing in the air from police.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian man shot in the head last week by Israeli forces died of his injuries today, officials at Gaza's al-Shifa hospital said. His death brings the toll of more than 16 months of unrest in the region to 1,194 people, including 914 Palestinians and 258 Israelis.
This afternoon the secretary general of the Damascus-based Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) called for an EU-brokered settlement to the conflict.
Mr Nayef Hawatmeh issued his call during a meeting with the French and Russian ambassadors to Syria. He also asked Russia to "coordinate its action with the EU and the UN with the aim of dismantling an Israeli blockade imposed on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Palestinian towns."
AFP
