GAZA, 9 March 2003 — Israel assassinated the top commander of Hamas’ military wing and three other activists in a helicopter missile strike on a car in the Gaza Strip yesterday, drawing vows of revenge from the group.
Ibrahim Al-Maqadma, 51, was a founder of Hamas and was believed to be the top commander of its military wing, which has waged a bombing campaign against Israel since mainstream Palestinian leaders signed interim peace accords with the Jewish state in 1993.
Four Israeli helicopter gunships swooped out of the sky and blasted a car in which Maqadma and three other Hamas activists were driving, turning it into a heap of charred, smoking wreckage and scattering body parts along the road.
Apache helicopters reportedly fired three missiles at Maqadma’s passing car. The residential area where the strike occurred was pocked with huge craters from the missiles. Personal belongings, including ID cards and shoes, blanketed the street.
“I was about to open my shop when suddenly a helicopter came from the sky,” said Abdullah Ali, 60, a grocery shop owner who was covered with blood from the airstrike. “I saw legs and hands fly in the air and then suddenly I fell down on the ground.”
Hamas’ military wing ordered its cells to take revenge, including by killing Israeli political leaders. The Palestinian Authority strongly condemned Maqadma’s assassination and said it would hold Israel responsible for its consequences.
Maqadma was the most senior Palestinian fighter Israel has killed since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000 after a deadlock in negotiations for an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The missile strike was the latest move in a wave of violence that has rocked Israel and the occupied territories. Hundreds of grieving Hamas members gathered at the morgue where the bodies were taken amid cries for revenge. Hamas leaders said Maqadma’s killing was a major loss for the group.
“They’ve crossed the red line,” said Ismail Haiyah, a senior leader of Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction. “They’ve opened a new battle. Hamas will know how to respond and how to get revenge,” he told Reuters from the Gaza morgue.
Hamas’ Izz El-Deen Al-Qassam military wing quickly issued a statement calling on all its cells to carry out attacks against Israelis including assassinating Israeli political leaders.
An Israeli security source described Maqadma as “a key decision maker in Hamas” and said he had been the top leader of the group’s military wing for the past two decades.
Hamas sources said Maqadma was the brains behind the group’s armed wing and its top commander, though Hamas political leaders said he was not involved in military activities.
Senior Hamas leader Salah Shehada, who was killed in an Israeli air raid last year, and top Hamas bombmaker Yahya Ayyash, killed in 1996 by a boobytrapped telephone planted by Israel, were both believed to have reported to Maqadma.
Meanwhile, an unarmed 23-year-old Palestinian man was killed by Israeli fire in the army reoccupied area of Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip.
