Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles on Wednesday at two cars carrying the military leaders of the militant Islamic group Hamas, killing one man but missing the bombing mastermind who tops Israel's wanted list.
Four missiles slammed into the cars as they drove through central Gaza, killing Bilal al-Ghoul and leaving the vehicles charred and smoldering wrecks. Pieces of metal from the vehicles hung in the branches of nearby trees. "Our revenge to the assassination...will be thunderous and painful," Hamas supporters later shouted through loudspeakers, vowing to avenge the killing of Ghoul, the son of a top bomb maker who was in one of the cars but escaped unhurt.
Mohammed Deif, a founder of Hamas's Izz-el-Deen al-Qassam military wing who has topped Israel's wanted list for masterminding a deadly campaign of suicide bombings, also escaped unharmed in the attack near the Bureij refugee camp.
Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian policeman in southern Gaza and troops killed four Palestinians near the West Bank city of Nablus in a raid the Israeli army said was aimed at militants planting a roadside bomb.
Palestinian officials said three of the men were unarmed civilians who tried to rescue a wounded gunman who later died. Palestinian gunmen shot and wounded two Jewish settlers and at least 12 Palestinians were also hurt in fighting which erupted in several familiar flashpoints from the south of the Gaza Strip to the north of the West Bank.

Bureau Report