Israel air strikes kill 4 militants (AP) Updated: 2005-12-15 08:57
Israeli missiles fired from the air ripped apart two cars in the Gaza Strip
on Wednesday, killing four Palestinian militants and wounding five other people,
including an Islamic Jihad spokesman, the military and Palestinians said.
The strikes came as the Palestinians' ruling Fatah Party slipped into
disarray. Young activists split away and formed their own party for Jan. 25
parliamentary elections, rejecting attempts by old-timers to keep control of the
party that has ruled Palestinian politics for decades.
Palestinians gather around the wreckage of a
car after it was hit in an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Wednesday
Dec. 14, 2005.[AP] | But aides to Palestinian
leader Mahmoud Abbas said he still hoped to avert the split.
In marked contrast to Fatah's chaos, the Islamic Hamas group unveiled a
neatly chosen slate of parliamentary candidates, naming a well-known pragmatist
to head the list in an apparent effort to woo mainstream Palestinians. The Fatah
split, an embarrassment to Abbas, also was likely to help Hamas.
The airstrikes in eastern Gaza City were Israel's third and fourth since it
renewed the practice of targeting militants following a deadly suicide bombing
in Israel on Dec. 5. Altogether, seven militants have been killed.
The Israeli missile set off explosives in the car, the military said,
blasting it to pieces. Israeli army footage filmed by a drone aircraft showed a
huge column of black smoke leaping from the stricken vehicle.
Israel said the militants, from the Popular Resistance Committees, were on
their way to attack the Karni cargo crossing, a vital lifeline for Palestinian
imports and exports.
A Popular Resistance spokesman who goes by the name of Abu Saed vowed
revenge.
"The blood shed by the Zionists will not be shed in vain," he said. "We will
retaliate and send them the message that Palestinian sacrifice does not come
cheap."
The group was behind several deadly attacks against Israelis in Gaza, and
some link PRC with an October 2003 bombing that killed three U.S. Marine guards
in a U.S. embassy convoy in Gaza.
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