Gaza Erupts Over Slain Militia Chief : Mideast: Protesting Palestinians pelt Israeli soldiers. One man is killed and more than 40 rioters are wounded in worst violence since Jewish state’s accord with PLO.

The Gaza Strip exploded in angry protests Thursday over the killing of a militia commander from the radical Islamic Resistance Movement in an ambush by undercover Israeli troops.

More than 40 Palestinians were wounded, and one was killed, as Israeli soldiers opened fire repeatedly through the day to quell hundreds of rioters who were pelting them with stones and firebombs, building barricades of flaming tires and making large sections of Gaza impassable.

The violence was the worst since Israel signed an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization on self-government for the region, and it recalled the intifada , the Palestinian rebellion against the prolonged Israeli occupation of both Gaza and the West Bank.

In one of the most chilling incidents, shown on the main Israeli news program “Mabat,” an unarmed 24-year-old Palestinian was shot in the head after shouting anti-Israeli slogans at the soldiers--and nothing more.

An army spokesman said the incident was under investigation; military regulations require soldiers to fire warning shots, then to aim to disable a protester.

The dead man was a 39-year-old Palestinian businessman from Saudi Arabia who had been visiting relatives and investigating investment opportunities. He was fatally wounded Thursday night, according to Israeli sources, after the car in which he was riding failed to stop at an army roadblock and troops opened fire, hitting him and two other occupants.

Late in the afternoon, about 5,000 Palestinian youths marshaled to conduct a memorial service for Imad Aqel, 24, who had led the guerrillas of the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip for several years before he was killed in an Israeli ambush Wednesday evening.

Chanting Islamic slogans and carrying copies of the Koran, the youths marched through Gaza City, defying military orders declaring it a “closed military zone,” to bury Aqel, long a popular hero in Gaza. But the actual remains were few--Palestinians accused the troops of blowing up Aqel’s body to prevent such a funeral.

An 18-year-old Palestinian, Fadel Ziyad, wounded in a clash with Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip Wednesday, died of his wounds on Thursday, according to hospital authorities. Three of those wounded Thursday were reported in critical condition.

In Gaza City, black flags flew from roofs in place of the Palestinian flag, mosques broadcast Koranic verses over the loudspeakers, and Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian group and a strong opponent of the Islamists, joined with Hamas in calling for three days of protests, including a general strike, to commemorate Aqel.

In a communique addressed to Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak, the Israeli armed forces’ chief of staff, Hamas vowed to avenge Aqel’s death and thwart the implementation of the accord on Palestinian self-government, which Hamas and other hard-line groups regard as a sellout to Israel because of the PLO’s compromises.

Recalling the attacks on Israeli soldiers after the deaths of previous Hamas commanders, the group said in a communique quoting Aqel himself, “We will never forget his famous words--’Killing Israeli soldiers is a worship by which we get closer to God.’ ”

Taking part in attacks that killed 11 Israeli soldiers by Hamas’ count and wounded more than 15 others, Aqel had become No. 1 on the Israeli security forces’ wanted list in Gaza, and Israeli officials took satisfaction in his death.

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On the run for more than two years, Aqel, however, had become an almost legendary figure among Palestinians as he eluded Israeli security forces almost daily, sometimes disguising himself as a Jewish settler and often operating from storefronts within sight of army outposts. Palestinian youths called him “the ghost.”

A book published by Hamas this week quoted Aqel as saying: “I hope to go to paradise by being killed by Israeli soldiers.”

Aqel’s brother, Adel, one of the 217 Islamic militants still exiled in southern Lebanon after being deported last December, said he was “proud that my brother died as a martyr.”

“The martyrdom of my brother means that the armed struggle is still on,” he added.

Israeli security forces caught up with Aqel on Wednesday when his car encountered a roadblock in Gaza City. Aqel jumped out, climbed onto a roof and opened fire, according to Israeli accounts. A special Israeli army undercover unit known as Shimson, whose members had been hiding in the area, returned the fire, military sources said, and chased Aqel through alleys and into a nearby building before killing him.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin hailed the ambush operation as “an impressive and important achievement in the war against terror, particularly against Hamas, the extremist elements who continue with terror . . . to murder Israelis and to murder peace.”

Rabin, addressing a meeting of his Labor Party in Tel Aviv, said “active Palestinian terrorism” was aimed at provoking a tough reaction by Israelis and turning public opinion against the peace accord with the PLO. Each attack fuels growing Israeli right-wing and settler opposition to the agreement, and Rabin is anxious to begin the transfer of power as planned next month.

In anticipation of new Hamas attacks, Israeli forces were put on full alert, both in Gaza and on the West Bank.

“I don’t think we are going to see Hamas stop its activities,” said Ori Orr, the chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs and defense committee. “Maybe we will see some revenge. We are at war with Hamas.”

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Israeli officers estimated that 15 to 20 hard-core Hamas activists remain at large in Gaza and 20 more on the West Bank. In its taunting challenge to Barak, Hamas put the Gaza figure at 28. They have carried out most of the 12 killings of Israelis in the two months since Israel and the PLO signed their accord.

Israeli officials do not think Hamas is strong enough to halt the hand-over of power in Gaza and the West Bank district of Jericho to PLO-led forces under the autonomy agreement, but they fear it can disrupt it.

On Wednesday, an alliance of Hamas and two Marxist groups also opposed to the accord swept the student council elections at the West Bank’s Birzeit University, traditionally a stronghold of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement. The campus was swept by violent protests overnight but was quiet Thursday.

Hamas so far has defeated all of Israel’s attempts to crush it. Each time Israeli forces kill or capture one leader or cell, another one grows. Crackdowns on its military wing have always brought bloody reprisals, and attempts to break its political structure, such as the deportation of alleged Islamic militants last December to southern Lebanon, have also failed.

* POW DEBATE: The family of an Israeli POW campaigns for his release. A22