Israel steps up attacks on militants

The latest operation was the deadliest since Hamas took over Gaza.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel will keep striking the leaders of groups that launch rockets from the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged Tuesday after an hours-long aerial assault killed 12 militants including the commander of the extremist group Islamic Jihad.

Islamic Jihad threatened “a wave of martyrdom operations” — suicide bombings in Israel — in response to what it called “a big loss.”

The Israeli attack began when aircraft blasted two cars in Gaza City after nightfall Monday, killing six men including Majed Harazin, Islamic Jihad’s charismatic military commander for Gaza and the West Bank. Rocket maker Karim al-Dahdouh also was killed in the attack.

Four more men were targeted as they emerged from morning prayers Tuesday at a northern Gaza mosque. Two members of the larger Hamas militant group, which rules Gaza, were killed in a separate airstrike in southern Gaza.

Meeting members of his Kadima party in Jerusalem late Tuesday, Olmert pledged to keep up the pressure.

“We will continue to seek out the heads of the terror organizations,” he said, “We will get all those who are responsible for firing rockets. The terror organizations feel this and will feel this in full force in the near future.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak emerged from a meeting with James L. Jones, the new American military envoy to the region, and said Israel would not let up in its offensive in Gaza, although the militants’ threats of revenge must be taken seriously.

“I hope these successes continue. At the same time we must be on our guard for the responses that may come from the other side,” said Jones, who spent the day meeting top Israeli military and political officials but did not speak to reporters.

Israel has intensified its activity in Gaza since Hamas seized control of Gaza, carrying out airstrikes and limited ground incursions in response to near-daily rocket attacks on southern Israeli communities. It has killed dozens of militant leaders, including Harazin’s predecessor.

The Israeli operation that ended Tuesday was the deadliest since Hamas took over Gaza in June.

Islamic Jihad, a small, violent group with ties to Iran, has been responsible for most of the rocket fire.

“There is no doubt that this is a big loss,” said Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, who threatened the wave of suicide bombings in response.

Thousands of Gazans took to the streets in funeral processions for the militants. In northern Gaza, bullets from the rifles of mourners severed an electric wire that fell and injured five people, medics said.

Israeli security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters, said they had been tracking the movements of Harazin, 38, for weeks. It was not immediately clear what the long-term impact of the airstrikes would be.

Islamic Jihad has always rebounded from Israeli strikes, and the rocket fire has persisted.