Around 50,000 Palestinians took to the streets of the West Bank city of Jenin today for the funeral of Hamas military leader, Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, who was killed in an Israeli missile attack yesterday.
They called for immediate retribution for his death.
Hanoud's deputy Ayman Hasaikah and his brother Ma'moun Hasaikah were also killed when Israeli helicopters fired missiles at their car near Nablus.
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Mahmoud Abu Hanoud in court last year, charged with terrorist offences
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Mourners in Jenin called on Hamas's military wing, Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, to prepare booby-trapped cars to be used in explosions in Israel.
In Gaza City, more than 10,000 demonstrators, many masked and pumping bullets from machine guns into the air, read from a statement issued by the al-Qassam Brigades. "Our revenge will be very soon and very strong against Israel inside Tel Aviv," it said.
In Nablus, around 4,000 Palestinians took to the streets for the funerals of two men killed a day earlier, possible while preparing a bomb.
Israel acknowledged today that Hanoud topped its wanted list and was suspected of having masterminded several major suicide bombings that have killed scores of Israelis since 1997.
In August 2000, three Israeli undercover troops were killed in a botched attempt to arrest Abu Hanoud in his home village of Assira al-Shamaliya near Nablus.
Abu Hanoud fled and was taken into custody by the Palestinian Authority. In May 2001, he was injured when Israeli warplanes retaliating for a suicide attack at a shopping mall in Israel bombed the Nablus prison where he was being held. Israel said he was released after the air strike.
The attack brought to at least seven the number of Palestinians to die violently yesterday, the day after five Palestinian boys were killed in an explosion in the Gaza Strip that Palestinian authorities blamed on an Israeli booby-trap. Palestinian schoolchildren observed a moment of silence today in remembrance of the dead boys.
At least 720 Palestinians and 188 Israelis have been killed since a uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September 2000, shortly after peace talks stalled.