Israel killed a top Palestinian fighter with a missile strike on his car yesterday, prompting threats of more rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli border towns. Mubarak Al-Hassanat, 37, was driving a black jeep on GazaÂ’s coastal road when his vehicle was struck by missiles. The jeep veered off the road onto the beach, with its roof sheared off and the front twisted. Two people were hurt.Hassanat was the most prominent fighter to be killed in an airstrike in over a year. He was a senior official in the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza, which oversees the security forces. He was also the No. 2 in the Popular Resistance Committees, a loose alliance of fighters from various factions involved in rocket attacks.
Hassanat had gotten his start in the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but over the years established closer ties with Hamas and then joined the PRC. On Monday, Hassanat met with PRC members for five hours, said a spokesman, Abu Abir.
The airstrike came just hours after a Palestinian prisoner died of injuries sustained during a riot Monday at an Israeli desert prison, and after Israeli forces killed two members of the Islamic Jihad group in a West Bank raid. HamasÂ’ military wing hinted that in retaliation for the prisonerÂ’s death, it might harm Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit whom the group, along with other militant factions, captured in June 2006. However, Shalit is a bargaining chip for Hamas, which seeks the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners, and it was not clear whether the threat was real.
Palestinian prisoners held in Israel went on hunger strike yesterday to protest against heavy-handed repression of a prison riot, officials said. The Prisoners Club, the main group representing Palestinians held in Israel, said the one-day hunger strike was being observed by most of the some 11,000 Palestinian security detainees in the Jewish state. “This is a one-day hunger strike to protest against what happened at Ketziot,” said Palestinian member of Parliament Issa Qaraqi.
The prisoner who died yesterday was identified as Mohammed Al-Ashkar, a member of the Islamic Jihad group, who was serving a two-year sentence for harboring a wanted militant.
In London, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert alleged that Hamas prisoners instigated the Ketziot riot because they have no hope of early release, unlike inmates from Abbas’ Fatah. Ashkar’s death sparked rallies of several hundred Palestinians each in three West Bank towns and in Gaza City. “We want the prisoners, not negotiations (with Israel),” chanted a crowd of about 200 in the town of Ramallah.
Family members of the prisoners held demonstrations in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem, demanding the release of their relatives be included in negotiations aimed at reviving the Middle East peace process. In Ramallah some 250 people, mostly women holding pictures of imprisoned husbands and sons, chanted “No peace, no surrender, while our prisoners are behind bars!”