Car Blast in Gaza Kills 5 Fighters; Retaliation Vowed

Five Palestinian gunmen were killed Monday when their car exploded in the Gaza Strip in what Palestinian officials said was a targeted Israeli missile attack and a move to sabotage efforts to broker a cease-fire.

The radical Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine vowed retaliation for the members of its military wing, whose bodies were discovered along with pieces of Kalashnikov rifles.

The deaths followed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s first meeting with high-ranking Palestinian officials since he took office nearly a year ago. The talks last week were held to search for ways to end the violence that has torn Israel and the Palestinian territories for more than 16 months.

Sharon is scheduled to meet Thursday with President Bush in Washington and has said he will ask the U.S. government to cut contacts with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

Israeli army and government officials refused to comment on the Gaza explosion. Israel Radio reported that its military sources said the men were carrying an explosive device in the car that apparently went off prematurely.

The radio also reported that two of the dead were wanted for an attack last year on the Israeli army outpost of Marganit in the Gaza Strip in which three soldiers were killed.

Arafat, whom the Israelis have had under siege at his headquarters in Ramallah in the West Bank for two months, accused Sharon of fueling tensions with targeted killings, which the Palestinians call assassinations.

“The Israeli government does not want to calm the situation,” Arafat said. “But it should know that the Palestinian people cannot be shaken or broken.”

The car blew up on a rural road near the Rafah refugee camp, close to the border with Egypt, and was reduced to a charred frame. Witnesses said an unmanned drone reconnaissance plane was flying overhead after the blast.

Palestinian officials said four men were killed when Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at the car. A fifth man died later.

The deaths threatened to fuel the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation and perpetuate the cycle of Israeli-Palestinian killings. The Democratic Front, a radical faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, issued a statement saying that “retaliation will come very soon and will shake the land under the feet of the occupiers.” The faction is one of the Palestinian groups that have carried out attacks against Israel in recent months.

Palestinians accuse the Israeli government of conducting a state-sponsored assassination campaign. Israel says it is acting in self-defense because the Palestinian Authority will not rein in extremists who attack Israel.

Monday’s explosion followed a predawn Israeli helicopter strike on an industrial compound in the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City. The Israel Defense Forces said a Palestinian mortar factory was hit. Palestinian officials said a wool mill, a furniture factory and a plastics plant were destroyed.

“Israel claims the factories produced mortar shells, but this is completely untrue,” said Hassan Bassal, owner of the site.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed-Rabbo said that during the talks last week, Sharon turned down a request from the Palestinians to suspend targeted killings for at least 10 days to allow their security forces to restore calm. Last month’s killing of a Palestinian militia leader in an explosion blamed on Israel triggered a series of revenge attacks.

Sharon met Wednesday in Jerusalem with Ahmed Korei, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament; Mahmoud Abbas, Arafat’s unofficial deputy; and Mohammed Rashid, Arafat’s financial advisor.

Sharon said he demanded that the Palestinians arrest terrorists and dismantle militias--including Arafat’s presidential guard, Force 17, and the Tanzim militia of the Palestinian leader’s Fatah movement.

Sharon also insisted that Palestinians collect illegal weapons and hand them over to the United States, take unspecified preventive measures to stop attacks on Israelis and end incitement.

The Palestinians asked that Sharon allow Arafat freedom of movement, stop incursions into Palestinian-controlled territory and lift Israeli blockades of Palestinian towns and villages.

Neither side gave ground. Jewish settlers and the Israeli far right, however, accused Sharon of violating his pledge not to negotiate with the Palestinians under fire. Critics on the left and the Palestinians, meanwhile, charged that the prime minister had taken a tactical step ahead of his trip to Washington to assert that he has tried to make peace.

“We cannot decide what Sharon wants,” said Palestinian Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman. “Maybe he wants to stop the criticism in Israel over his meeting. Maybe he wants to say, ‘I’m still the man with the gun.’ ”

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Special correspondent Fayed abu Shammalah in Gaza contributed to this report.