TEL AVIV Ñ The leader of Hamas's military wing has been injured in
an Israeli missile attack.
Israeli attack helicopters fired two anti-tank missiles toward the car
of Mohammed Deif in Gaza City on Thursday. Israeli and Palestinian sources
said the missiles destroyed the vehicle and killed Deif's two bodyguards.
The fate of the 36-year-old Hamas leader remained in doubt. At first,
Israeli military sources said Deif was killed in the attack.
But Hamas insisted he was only injured and on Friday Israeli military
sources agreed that Deif was probably injured. Twenty-five pedestrians were
said to have also been injured in the attack.
Deif has been a target of Israel for a decade and survived four previous
assassination attempts. The last one was in August 2001.
Hamas has vowed to launch revenge attacks against Israel. In response,
Israeli authorities declared an alert.
Israeli military sources said Deif had been located in the Sheik Radwan
neighborhood in southern Gaza City on Tuesday. The sources said Deif's
movements were monitored until the Apache AH-64A attack two days later.
Deif was said to have masterminded numerous suicide bombings in Israeli
as well as attacks on Israeli civilian and military facilities in the Gaza
Strip. In March, Deif was said to have commanded an attack on an Israeli
seminary in which five students were killed.
In addition, Deif helped develop Hamas's military capability. This
included the design and production of the Kassam-class short-range rocket.
Deif was appointed Hamas military leader days after the assassination of
Salah Shehada in July. Palestinian sources said Deif shared some of his
authority with Ibrahaim Maqadmeh.
