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    Eight Die in Israeli Strikes in Gaza
    The Associated Press

    Wednesday 06 February 2008

    Gaza City, Gaza Strip - Israel killed eight Hamas militants Tuesday, firing missiles into the sandy courtyard of a Hamas police station as the Islamic militant group claimed responsibility for a bold strike inside Israel, the first suicide mission in over a year.

    Israel continued to target Gazan militants in at least one airstrike Wednesday, injuring four Palestinians, as Hamas persisted in rocket attacks on Israeli border communities.

    Hamas said the militants in the bombing in the Israeli town of Dimona on Monday that killed one woman came from the West Bank and not Gaza.

    The launch of a suicide attack from the West Bank, if confirmed by Israel, could embarrass Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas' main political rival. The Israeli military controls the West Bank, but Israel says Abbas' success in reining in West Bank militants is key to moving forward in peace efforts.

    Hamas seized control of Gaza by force in June, and Abbas no longer has a say there.

    The latest round of violence followed two weeks of anarchy on the Gaza-Egypt border that has heightened Israeli concerns that Islamic militants could use the chaos to infiltrate into Israel to carry out attacks.

    The last three weeks have seen a succession of violent events - starting with a Hamas rocket barrage on Israel, then a tightened Israeli economic blockade of the territory, and finally a Hamas-engineered border breach with Egypt on Jan. 23 that enabled hundreds of thousands of Gazans to break out.

    Israeli security chiefs had warned that Palestinian militants used the breach to slip out of Gaza and sought to make their way from Egypt through the porous 150-mile stretch of mostly unsecured Sinai desert that borders Israel.

    The suicide bombing in Dimona, some 35 miles from the border, set off speculation the assailants used just that method to slip into Israel.

    Shortly after the bombing, two Gaza militant groups said they sent the attackers from Gaza, via Egypt. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an offshoot of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group, and a small PLO faction released the alleged bombers' farewell videos, and their two families set up mourning houses.

    However, on Tuesday Hamas claimed responsibility and said the attackers came from the West Bank, not from Gaza, an assertion backed by Israeli security officials, though Israel made no official announcement.

    Israeli Housing Minister Zeev Boim said he was nearly certain the bombers had set out from the West Bank, not Gaza, and Israeli troops arrested male relatives of the two men named by Hamas as the bombers.

    The conflicting claims heightened Israeli concerns that multiple teams of attackers are on the loose, and Israeli security forces remained on high alert throughout the country.

    Early Wednesday, Israeli aircraft fired at militants who had launched rockets moments earlier, the army said. Hamas said that four of its men were moderately injured in the strike.

    Gaza militants said Israel carried out several airstrikes overnight, but the army confirmed only one. On Tuesday evening, three civilians were lightly injured in an airstrike.

    Hamas fired a barrage of rockets at Israeli border communities Tuesday and early Wednesday, moderately wounding a 14-year-old girl and knocking out power in parts of the hard-hit town of Sderot.

    The rocket salvo came after six Hamas policeman were killed Tuesday when Israeli aircraft fired missiles on a Hamas outpost in southern Gaza. Israel said the airstrike was retaliation for a rocket attack on Sderot Tuesday morning in which two factories were hit, causing damage but no injuries.

    The showdown between Hamas leaders who are determined to cling to power in Gaza and an international community, led by Israel and Egypt, seeking to isolate the Hamas-run government has created a volatile situation that could rapidly escalate.

    The families of the two Gaza men initially named as the Dimona bombers said they had not received word that their sons were alive.

    In the West Bank city of Hebron, relatives of Shadi Zghayer and Mohammed Herbawi said they learned from watching Hamas' Al Aqsa TV that the two were named as the Dimona bombers. The men, Hamas members in their 20s, left home early Monday, without giving their destination, their relatives said.

    "I am proud of my son and hope he goes to heaven," said Zghayer's mother, Aziya.

    Just before Hamas' claim of responsibility, Israeli aircraft fired missiles into the courtyard of a Hamas police station in the southern Gaza town of Abassan, killing six Hamas policemen and wounding several others, medical officials and Hamas security said.

    Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas leader, said Israel would "pay a high price" for the missile strike.

    Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said he expected the Dimona bombing to strengthen the resolve of the international community to shun Hamas.

    "I hope that this public admission by Hamas of direct involvement in the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians will serve as a wake-up call to those in the international community who've had illusions as to the true nature of Hamas," he said.

    --------

    Associated Press writers Diaa Hadid in Gaza City and Nasser Shiyoukhi in Hebron contributed to this report.

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