Hamas vows to avenge killing of its activist

A Palestinian doctor treats a wounded child at Nasser hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday. The child was wounded during an Israeli attack where the member of Hamas Hamdi Kalakh, 24, was killed. The armed wing of the Islamic radical group Hamas vowed to "avenge as soon as possible" the death of one of its members in an Israeli helicopter strike in central Gaza. Photo: AFP

"Our Mujahedeen (holy warriors) will avenge our martyr as soon as possible to ensure that the Zionists pay the price," said a statement from the group's armed wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades.

Hamdi Kalakh, 24, was killed in the air strike while riding his donkey cart near the southern town of Khan Yunis late Thursday, in the fourth attack on Hamas militants in the past week. Three bystanders were also wounded.

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His killing appeared to be Israeli retaliation for a Qassam rocket being fired on the outskirts of the major port city of Ashkelon, the first time an improvised rocket fired from the Gaza Strip had reached so far into Israel.

An Israeli military spokesman said that "explosives expert" Kalakh had been preparing an imminent Qassam attack against the nearby Gush Katif Jewish settlement bloc.

"Kalakh was responsible for the repeated firing of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds at Israeli targets in and outside of the Gaza Strip as well as planting roadside bombs," he said.

"The targeting of Kalakh is line with IDF (Israel Defence Force) policy to operate against the Hamas terror infrastructure."

The helicopter strike came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the army to take "all necessary measures" to prevent Hamas from firing rockets.

The army staged an incursion several hundred metres (yards) into north Gaza earlier to level trees which it said had been used as cover to launch a Qassam rocket which landed in an industrial zone of Ashkelon, without causing any injuries.

The Israeli army has launched a series of attacks on Hamas figures since the group carried out an August 19 bus bombing in Jerusalem which killed 21 people.