Hamas Takes Responsibility for Attack

The militant Islamic movement Hamas claimed responsibility Wednesday for an attack on an Israeli army outpost that threatened to derail U.S. efforts to secure a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians.

In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer called the assault on the outpost, which lies inside Israel near the southern Gaza Strip, “particularly disturbing because it came at a time when the situation on the ground had been relatively quiet.”

U.S. officials also said that Israel had presented strong evidence Wednesday of involvement by senior Palestinian Authority officials in a shipment of weapons and explosives seized by Israel on the Red Sea last week.

Four Israelis and two Palestinian gunmen were killed in the attack on the outpost Wednesday.

Hamas said the assault was in retaliation for Israel’s capture last week of the Karine-A, a ship laden with 50 tons of arms that the Israelis said were purchased by the Palestinian Authority and bound for Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack on the outpost. It said in a statement that the assault would only lead to an escalation of measures against the Palestinians by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

But angry Israeli officials blamed Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and promised a harsh reaction. Meeting with his Security Cabinet, Sharon said it is Israel’s policy to respond to every such attack.

The escalation came after more than three weeks of relative calm that followed Arafat’s televised demand that all Palestinian organizations observe a cease-fire in the 15-month fight with Israel. At the time, Hamas said it would honor Arafat’s demand.

A senior Hamas official insisted Wednesday that the organization had only agreed to suspend suicide bombings inside Israel and attacks against Israeli civilians. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said Hamas will continue to strike at Israeli soldiers if the Palestinian Authority presses on with arresting militants.

“We will react against the Israelis if the authority takes measures according to Israeli pressures,” the official said. “We see the Israeli pressure on the authority [to arrest Hamas members] as a kind of aggression against us.”

Palestinian security organizations evacuated buildings in Gaza that they considered likely targets of Israeli retaliation. After dark Wednesday, Israeli tanks and bulldozers flattened two Palestinian security posts near the spot where the attack occurred.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell discussed the raid on the outpost in a phone call with Arafat, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. The spokesman said the raid was “another in a series of direct challenges to the authority of Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority.” Arafat, he said, must dismantle “terrorist groups.”

Powell also took issue with the Palestinian leader’s insistence that he knew nothing about the Karine-A or its load of Katyusha rockets, plastic explosives and other weapons that Israeli commandos intercepted at sea last Thursday, Boucher said. He said the secretary of State told Arafat “that the indications of Palestinian involvement were deeply troubling to us, and that that’s what we felt required a full explanation.”

A team of senior Israeli intelligence officers on Wednesday shared evidence about the arms shipment with officials of the State Department, CIA, Pentagon and National Security Council in Washington.

The State Department said Israel had provided “extensive and compelling evidence” about the direct involvement of senior figures in the Palestinian Authority and the mainstream Palestinian movement Fatah.

Other U.S. officials said Israel had laid out evidence implicating Arafat as well as top officials in the Iranian government, disputing suggestions that it might have been a rogue operation.

A senior Israeli security source involved in the briefings said the radical Lebanese group Hezbollah played an important intermediary role in organizing the shipment. The Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, singled out Hezbollah security chief Imad Mughniyah for his role.

The Israelis are hoping to persuade the Bush administration that the capture of the Karine-A and Wednesday’s attack prove that the Palestinians are uninterested in a cease-fire and a return to negotiations.

U.S. envoy Anthony C. Zinni said Monday before leaving the region that the two sides had made progress toward restoring security cooperation and eliminating violence. He is due to return Jan. 18.

Israeli army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz said the assault on the outpost proved “beyond any doubt that the Palestinian Authority is not fighting against the infrastructure of terrorism.” Mofaz said he believes “that all those who assumed that we are in the midst of some sort of a calm period understand today that the Palestinian Authority’s actions are a mere show.”

Sharon on Tuesday said that the Palestinian Authority has formed a dangerous strategic link to Hezbollah and to Iran. He called on the Bush administration to add Fatah, its Tanzim militia and Arafat’s Force 17 presidential guard to the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.

In a briefing, Maj. Gen. Doron Almog, commander of the Israeli army’s southern division, said two Palestinian gunmen cut the outpost’s security fence about 4 a.m. Wednesday.

The heavily armed pair sneaked up on what the army calls the “Africa” outpost, which lies near the southeastern corner of Gaza close to the Israeli farming community of Kerem Shalom. Three soldiers of a mostly Bedouin unit were on duty at the rain-soaked position.

Bedouin, who are Arabs, are not required to serve in the Israeli army. However, they are allowed to volunteer, and about 2,000 Bedouin serve, according to an army spokesman. The unit attacked Wednesday is a reconnaissance unit whose soldiers have been serving on the Israeli-Egyptian border--one of the most active fronts in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Almog said the gunmen, who wore the uniforms of one of the Palestinian security services, lobbed grenades at the outpost, then opened fire on it. Two soldiers and one of the gunmen were killed in the battle. One soldier and the other gunman were wounded. A four-man Israeli patrol arrived on the scene, and the injured gunman opened fire on it, killing a commander and a driver before he was shot dead.

Nearby Jewish communities were put on high alert as the army combed the area, looking for six accomplices that Almog said remained on the Gaza side of the border during the gun battle.

Hours after the attack, senior Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal claimed responsibility for what he called the “bold operations.” In a joint news conference in Beirut with Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Meshaal said the two gunmen were Hamas members from the southern Gazan town of Rafah.

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Times staff writer Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.