Palestinian policemen loyal to Hamas government inspect the scene after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, yesterday.
Gaza: Violence erupted yesterday in both Gaza and the West Bank, with the assassination by Israel of a militant bomb-maker and the killing of a Jewish settler, actions which are likely to complicate a drive by the United States to bring both sides back to negotiations after a four-year impasse.
The targeted killing of Hitham Masshal, 24, described by Israel as a “global jihad-affiliated terrorist”, in an airstrike in northern Gaza risked fracturing the ceasefire in place since the end of the eight-day conflict last November. It was the first assassination since Egypt brokered a truce to end last year’s violence.
In the West Bank, clashes followed the stabbing to death of Eviatar Borovzky, 30, as he waited for a bus. Large numbers of Israeli security forces were deployed amid fears that the killing could trigger widespread confrontations.
The renewed violence is likely to dismay the US secretary of state, John Kerry, who is on a drive to get the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table after four years without direct talks. Kerry has visited the region three times in recent weeks in an effort to broker confidence-building measures, which are seen as a necessary precursor to renewed negotiations.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) claimed Masshal had taken part in a recent rocket attack on the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat, saying he had “acted in different jihad Salafi terror organisations and over the past few years has been a key terror figure”.
He was targeted by an Israeli warplane while riding a motorcycle at about 10am. “A direct hit was confirmed,” said a statement from the IDF. Video footage showed blood and the destroyed vehicle at the scene of the strike. A second man, riding with Masshal, was reported to be injured.
The IDF statement said that Masshal had worked with “all of the terror organisations in the Gaza Strip. He manufactured, improved and traded different types of ammunition, specialising in rockets and explosive devices, which he sold to terror organisations”. Reports from Gaza suggested that Masshal was an explosives expert for hire, rather than ideologically motivated.
The attack on Eilat on 17 April involved two rockets fired from the Egyptian Sinai. One, which landed in a residential area, caused minor damage; the other landed on open ground. At the time, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said the attack was the work of “a terrorist cell that left Gaza and used Sinai in order to attack an Israeli city” and warned that Israel “will exact a price for this”.
Yesterday Netanyahu said: “Today we struck at one of those involved in the criminal firing of rockets at Eilat. I said that we would not ignore this; our action is in continuation of our policy. We will not accept the sporadic firing of rockets from either the Gaza Strip or Sinai. We will act, and are acting, in order to defend Israeli citizens.” Israeli forces have carried out two airstrikes since the end of November’s conflict, both in response to rocket fire.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, the Islamist organisation that controls Gaza, called the targeted killing “dangerous and unjustified”, adding that the strike violated the ceasefire agreement. Hamas has observed the ceasefire, blaming intermittent rocket fire into Israel in the past two months on small ultra-extreme organisations which it is trying to rein in.
“There are no more than 10 guys involved in firing rockets from Gaza,” Ihab Al Ghusain, head of the Hamas government’s media office, said in Gaza City this week. “Nobody accepts people doing things against the ceasefire agreement.”
There are widespread fears in Gaza that further military confrontation is inevitable.
In the West Bank, clashes between militant settlers and Israeli security forces in the West Bank were reported following the attack on Borovzky. Two Palestinian school buses were stoned by settlers, while other settlers set fire to tyres and olive groves, a Palestinian official, Ghassan Daghlas, told the news agency Ma’an.
Guardian News
