HAMAS LEADERS KILLED BY ISRAELI FORCES

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Apr. 8, 2003
Top Hamas leader, 7 others killed in Gaza strike
By THE JERUSALEM POST INTERNET STAFF


Eight people were killed, some of them Hamas terrorists, in an IAF missile
strike in Gaza City Tuesday night.

Witnesses said an F-16 warplane fired a missile at a Subaru car in Gaza
City's Zeitoun neighborhood, turning it into a mass of charred metal.

One of those killed was Said Arabid, 33, from Gaza.

Arabid was one of the top commanders of Hamas' military wing in Gaza,
Izzadin al Kassam.

According to the IDF, Arabid led the military operations of Hamas, together
with Mohammed Deif, since the early 90's.

The two men were responsible for the planning and execution of scores of
attacks against Israelis.

Arabid was directly involved in the attack that led to the death of an
Israeli soldier in 1993, and in the bombing of a bus on Tel-Aviv's Dizengoff
Street in October 1994 in which 21 Israelis were killed and dozens were
injured.

Arabid was directly involved in the kidnap and murder of Corporal Nachshon
Waxman. A Golani regiment soldier, Corporal Waxman was kidnapped by Hamas
terrorists on October 9th 1994. He was eventually located in a house at the
West Bank town of Bir Naballa.

An elite IDF force from Sayeret Matkal stormed the house, but the raid
failed: the force's commander, Nir Poraz, was killed in the firefight, and
the terrorists managed to kill Waxman before they were shot dead.

Arabid was arrested by the Palestinian Authority in May 1999, but was
released at the start of the Intidadah. The IDF says that Arabid was
actually recruited to the Palestinian Preventative Security organization,
which it says has strong ties with Hamas.

The other known Hamas terrorist killed in Tuesday's action was Ashraf
Halabi, 28, of the Shati refugee camp in Gaza. Halabi worked closely with
Arabid in Hamas' military wing. Halabi was arrested by Israel in 1994 and
the PA in 2000.

The warplanes fired the first missiles, and this was closely followed by a
second attack on the car by IAF Apache attack helicopters, reports Israel
Radio.

A witness, Yussef Touth, 24, said the white car was approaching an
intersection when he saw the two planes, and then "suddenly I saw a big
flame in the sky" and the missile hit the car. He was wounded in both legs
and lay covered with blood in the hospital. "I saw bodies torn to pieces,"
he said.

The mangled bodies of the people inside were brought to Shifa Hospital in
Gaza.
The Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City is known as a stronghold of the Hamas.

There are as yet no details of the other occupants of the car.

This was Israel's first air strike in Gaza since the start of the Iraq war.

(With The Associated Press)
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