Hamas Vows Revenge, Israel Tightens Measures

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 09, 2003

Hamas Vows Revenge, Israel Tightens Measures

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In the aftermath of Saturday's failed Israeli attempt to assassinate Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement vowed to carry out attacks that Israel had never witnessed.

In return, Israel immediately imposed a tightened closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip and sent more troops and security forces to the borders between Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Since Hamas carried out the suicide bombing attack in Jerusalem on Aug. 19 that killed 22 Israelis and American citizens, Israel had intensified its military actions of targeting, observing and following every Hamas member no matter whether he is a politician or a militant.

Right after the suicide attack, Israel had carried out more than eight airstrikes on Hamas militants and political leaders, five of them succeeded and three failed.

Ismail Abu Shanab, a top Hamas leader, and nine militants of Hamas' armed wing were killed in the airstrikes.

In one of the failed airstrikes, an Israeli F-16 warplane on Saturday dropped a heavy bomb on a building in Gaza City where Yassin and two of his aides were meeting.

Yassin was hurt in the arm and three other people were injured in the attack.

On Sunday night, an Israeli Apache helicopter fired two missiles at the house of Abdel Sallam Abu Musa, a Hamas militant from Khan Younis, injuring 10 people, including Abu Musa.

Meanwhile, Hamas' armed wing claimed responsibility on Sunday and Monday for firing a rocket at southern Israel and dozens ofmortar shells and anti-tank missiles at Jewish settlements.

The attempt to assassinate Yassin "would make Israel pay a heavy price for this crime and other crimes it carried out against the Palestinian people," the group said in a leaflet.

The leaflet said Hamas members had fired a medium-range AlQassam missile at Yesha, a village east of the borders between Gaza Strip and Israel.

Israel Radio reported that the rocket had landedat empty area, causing no injuries or damage.

The leaflet also said its militants fired two rockets with arange of 2,500 meters at the Jewish settlement of Atsmona,southwest of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza Strip.

Four mortar shells were also fired at the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in central Gaza Strip. Israel said no injuries were reported in the attacks.

The Hamas militants also blew up an Israeli military jeep in central Gaza Strip on Sunday, wounding at least three Israeli soldiers.

However, by managing to assassinate some of the most important figures in the armed and political wings of Hamas and restrict the movement of those who are still alive, Israel seemed to have succeeded, to a great extent, in undermining the "infrastructure ofthe militants groups."

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