Israeli Occupation Army Assassinates 4 Palestinians in Gaza Strike
Sunday Aug 24, 2003

GAZA - Israel killed a commander and three other members of Hamas's armed wing in a helicopter missile strike, prompting a vow of revenge from the Palestinian militant group as a U.S.-backed peace plan took another battering.

The four were killed when U.S. supplied helicopter gunships swooped down and fired U.S. made missiles at them as they walked near a beach in Gaza City. "The four men were sitting on a hilltop overlooking the beach. They stood up and were about to cross the road when helicopters fired four missiles," a witness said. "Three missiles hit the people directly and a fourth missile landed behind them," he said.

The bodies were decapitated or mangled almost beyond recognition, medics said.

Hamas's spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said Israel would "pay the price" for killing members of his group. Hamas and other militant groups had already vowed to carry out revenge attacks after Israel assassinated a senior Hamas leader in a missile strike in Gaza City on Thursday.

The assassination -- in retaliation for Hamas's killing of 21 people in a suicide bombing of a Jerusalem bus on Tuesday in yet another tit-for-tat attack -- prompted militant groups to dissolve a seven-week-old truce which underpinned the so-called peace "road map."

I was in Israel on vacation when it happened. 21 dead, including a pregnant mother of 12. Over 80 wounded. For three Hamas leaders, I think the palestinians got off quite easily. If the bombing stopped, at least my liberal heart would justify hating the Israelis. But they cannot live in peace while this goes on, and so, neither will the Palestinians. I was at the Kotel just three days before, walking where the bus drove. What did I do, or any of the bus drivers and riders? Hamas leaders had better be wary of their sins. For they cause death not only to innocent Israelis, but migrant workers, Israeli Arabs, and others. One thing I learned in Israel, that above all their names should be erased from the book of heaven.