Three members of the hardline Palestinian movement Hamas were killed on Wednesday in an Israeli helicopter strike on a car near Gaza City, witnesses and Palestinian medical sources said.
The car was targeted with rockets fired from a helicopter close to the settlement of Netzarim, which lies just to the south of Gaza City, the witnesses said.
The charred bodies of the three victims were transferred to Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
They were all members of the Islamist movement Hamas, according to Hamas and security sources.
The latest deaths bring the overall toll since the start of the Palestinian intifada in September 2000 to 3 797, including 2 843 Palestinians and 886 Israelis.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the air strikes.
The Israeli military’s Chief of Staff, Moshe Yaalon, announced on Tuesday that the army would intensify its operations against militant groups in the Palestinian territories.
”In the light of the intensification of the activities of the terrorist organisations over the last few weeks, we will intensify our anti-terror operations,” Yaalon told army radio.
”In this kind of situation, attack is the best form of defence … We will pursue the terrorists — whoever they are and wherever they are.”
Netzarim, whose 65 families are guarded by an entire army battalion, is set to be dismantled as part of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s controversial plan to disengage from the Palestinians.
Senior aides to Sharon returned home in the early hours from Washington after having failed so far to secure United States backing for the disengagement plan.
Sharon’s bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, and national security adviser Giora Eiland had held talks with senior administration officials of US President George Bush, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
But diplomatic sources said they have so far failed to convince the US to back the ”disengagement plan” that would see Israel evacuate most of its settlements in the Gaza Strip while strengthening control over others in the West Bank.
The sources said that three senior White House officials would travel to Israel for a further round of talks next week, with Washington seeking more details before deciding whether to give the plan its approval.
The three-strong team, which will include Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, held talks with Sharon in Jerusalem only last week.
The premier is expected to travel to Washington himself before the end of the month.
Sharon has said that he intends to embark on his own unilateral measures within a few months if the deadlock in the bilateral peace process with the Palestinians is not broken but he has said that he regards US backing for such a project as vital.
The US is one of the four sponsors of the ”road map” peace plan, which was endorsed by the Israelis and Palestinian last summer but has never really got off the ground.
While the Israelis say the Palestinians have broken the agreement by failing to dismantle armed factions, the Palestinians have pointed to Israel’s failure to meet its obligations to freeze settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Newly released official figures showed that Israeli settlement construction rose by 35% in 2003.
The Central Bureau of Statistics said that work began on 1 850 new settler homes, compared with 1 369 the previous year.
Continuing violence on the ground has also undermined the peace efforts.
A 19-year-old Palestinian militant belonging to the radical Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades was shot dead early on Wednesday in the northern West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem, Palestinian medical and security sources said.
And a 21-year-old Palestinian man died on Wednesday of wounds sustained last week when Israeli forces opened fire on a protest against the separation barrier being built in the West Bank. — Sapa-AFP