HAMAS HAS vowed revenge after two of its senior military commanders were killed yesterday by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Hebron.
A statement by the Israeli military said the two men, Nashat al-Karmi and Mamun Natshe, were part of the Hamas cell that killed four settlers in a West Bank shooting attack in late August.
According to eyewitnesses, Israeli forces surrounded the fugitives’ hideout, and after a heavy exchange of gunfire an Israeli bulldozer razed the three-storey building.
After the August shooting both Israeli and Palestinian security forces launched a massive security sweep against Hamas suspects throughout the West Bank. More than 1,400 Hamas activists were detained by the Fatah-controlled Palestinian security forces.
According to Israeli military sources it was information gleaned from the Hamas detainees that led to the location of the Hebron hideout of the two militants. Thousands attended the funeral in Hebron yesterday of Mr Natshe. After he was buried clashes erupted at a number of West Bank locations between stone-throwing Palestinian youths and Israeli troops.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the security forces for “bringing to justice the terrorists who made seven children orphans”, adding that “Israel will continue to hunt down terrorists everywhere”. Hamas threatened to avenge what was termed the Israeli “massacre”, and also blamed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority for collaborating with Israel.
Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad condemned the Israeli attack. “The road to peace does not go through killing our citizens,” he said.
“Once again, the Israeli occupation chooses violence and death and we denounce this incident, regardless of its circumstances.”
Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, Hamas has reportedly thwarted an attempt by Israel to locate Gilda Shalit, the soldier who was captured by militants in a cross- border raid in 2006. The Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram reported that Israel recruited a member of the Hamas military wing who provided members of the group with two-way radios.
After being uncovered, the collaborator, identified as al-Masra’a, a resident of central Gaza, managed to flee to the border fence where an Israeli tank was waiting. According to the report, Hamas fighters gave chase, but failed to intercept the agent. Following the incident members of the Hamas military wing destroyed all their two-way radio sets, fearing they had been bugged.