Israeli Missile Kills Palestinian Fugitive

Israeli forces staged a fiery missile attack Thursday that killed a top Palestinian fugitive who had been blamed for the deaths of three Americans in the Gaza Strip in 2003.

The slain man, Jamal abu Samhadana, had recently been named to a senior security post by the Hamas-led government, a move that angered Israel and the United States.

Three other militants from Abu Samhadana’s group, the Popular Resistance Committees, were also killed in the explosion at one of the organization’s training camps in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Hamas government denounced the Israeli strike, which was the first to target an official in its administration. The Islamic militant group took power in March after winning Palestinian elections in January.

“With this action, Israel is sending a message that all members of this government can be targeted for assassination,” Ghazi Hamad, the Hamas government’s Cabinet secretary, told reporters in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said the training camp, rather than Abu Samhadana in particular, was the intended target. But an Israeli security source said the decision to proceed with the strike was made after intelligence pinpointed Abu Samhadana’s presence.

Israel had tried on several occasions to kill Abu Samhadana, who was in his early 40s and a member of one of the most powerful clans in the southern town of Rafah.

Abu Samhadana was at the center of a furor that erupted in April, when Hamas appointed him as a director-general in the Interior Ministry, saying he would oversee a newly created Hamas militia.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the rival Fatah faction, vetoed both Abu Samhadana’s appointment and the creation of the militia. The 3,000-member new force took to the streets anyway, sharply heightening tensions between Hamas and Fatah. Gunmen from the two sides have been staging intermittent shootouts and reprisal killings for the last month in Gaza.

Abu Samhadana never formally assumed his duties as head of the militia, in large part because he was a hunted fugitive, living in hide-outs and traveling clandestinely around Gaza.

Abu Samhadana’s group was made up of militants from several factions, including Hamas, and some former members of the Palestinian security forces. It was responsible for a string of violent attacks against Israelis.

Israeli intelligence believed the group was behind an explosion targeting a U.S. diplomatic convoy in Gaza in October 2003. Three American security guards died in the blast, and since then U.S. diplomats have been forbidden to travel to Gaza.

The United States government demanded repeatedly that those responsible be brought to justice, but the Palestinian Authority never sought to prosecute or imprison Abu Samhadana. His group denied involvement in the attack.

Special correspondent Fayed abu Shammaleh in Gaza City contributed to this report.