Israeli strikes on Gaza kill more Palestinian militants

Israel on Tuesday carried out more airstrikes against Palestinian rocket squads based in the Gaza Strip, killing at least six more militants a day after slaying Islamic Jihad’s military chief.

Israeli air operations have killed at least 11 militants since Monday evening. Most belonged to Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for dozens of cross-border rocket attacks into southern Israel in recent months.

The group vowed to avenge the death Monday night of Majid Harazin, the head of Islamic Jihad’s military arm in the Gaza Strip. Mourners at his funeral in Gaza City on Tuesday fired shots into the air and shouted calls for vengeance.

But Israeli officials said they would continue targeting Gaza-based Palestinian fighters, especially ranking members, in an effort to quell daily salvos of crude Kassam rockets and mortar rounds into Israeli border towns such as Sderot. Gaza militants have fired more than 2,000 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel since January, most of them since the Islamist group Hamas took power.

“The fact that those terrorists have to hide makes it very difficult for them to plan and execute launching Kassams and reduces, to a certain extent, the numbers launched,” Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon told Army Radio.

Despite the intensified air campaign, Palestinian militants managed to lob several more projectiles at southern Israel on Tuesday, causing damage to a chicken coop at a kibbutz. No injuries were reported.

Four Islamic Jihad militants died early Tuesday during an Israeli missile strike in the northern Gaza Strip, an area frequently used as a launchpad for rockets aimed at Sderot.

Two Hamas members died later in a similar strike on a Hamas-run police station in the town of Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has been in sole control of Gaza since its forces vanquished those of the rival Fatah movement in June. Israel holds Hamas responsible for the persistent rocket attacks, though most are claimed by Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees. Israeli officials believe Hamas helps the other organizations carry out their attacks or turns a blind eye.

The attacks have killed two Israelis this year, making a total of 12 since 2000 inside Israel, and have left Israeli politicians and military leaders flummoxed. Repeated airstrikes and numerous limited incursions by troops on the ground in Gaza have failed to stop the salvos.

Many Israeli residents have lost patience with what they say has been a lack of action by the Israeli government. Officials worry that a sweeping military offensive in densely populated Gaza could result in heavy casualties among Israeli troops and Palestinian civilians without stopping the rocket attacks.

Meanwhile, in Washington on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino unveiled the first details of a previously announced trip by President Bush to the Middle East in early January. She said he would visit Israel, the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, from Jan. 8 to Jan. 16.

The meetings with key Middle East leaders are intended to spur progress in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that began after an international conference in November in Annapolis, Md.

“What the president’s role can be is to help encourage them to help push on those negotiations,” Perino said. “The president can help facilitate those discussions.”

She said, however, that she did not expect Bush to be involved in specific negotiations; nor was a three-way meeting of Bush and Israeli and Palestinian leaders likely, she said.

Special correspondent Abu Alouf reported from Gaza City and Times staff writer Ellingwood from Jerusalem. Times staff writer James Gerstenzang in Washington contributed to this report.