JERUSALEM, June 10 (UPI) -- The military's attempt to kill Hamas leader Abdel Azziz Rantisi in one of Gaza's main streets, Tuesday, divided Israelis. While government officials and members of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Likud Party justified the raid, opposition members and several retired army generals criticized its timing.
Rantisi jumped out of his car, Tuesday morning, the moment the first missile missed it. He required a minor operation but his bodyguard, and a nearby woman and a girl were killed, Haaretz reported.
A targeted attack later in the day in Jabalya also killed three.
One of the government's key arguments for the attacks was that it has to defend its citizens so long as the Palestinian Authority fails to stop terror.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told veteran soldiers in Netania, north of Tel Aviv, "We shall continue fighting terror as long as there is no one on the other side who does so. We shall continue fighting against the heads of extremist terrorist organizations those who initiate, finance, and dispatch terrorists to kill Jews."
Israeli doves, however, slammed the timing of Tuesday's raid because it undermines the new Palestinian prime minister, Abu Mazen, who is trying to assert his authority. Crowds in Gaza Tuesday demonstrated against Abu Mazen and the Minister of State for Security Affairs Mohammad Dahlan.
With such attacks "we won't get them (the Palestinian Authority) to even start fighting Hamas, because it will be very difficult for them to do so," former military chief of General Staff, Lieutenant Gen. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak said.
The cycle of violence triggered the latest strike. Since last Wednesday's Aqaba summit meeting with U.S. President George Bush, Palestinian militants have killed five Israeli soldiers. Police suspects militants murdered the young couple found with multiple stab wounds in the woods near Jerusalem. And the Israeli army foiled other attacks.
"We're fed up with condemnations (of attacks)," the Chairman of the Knesset's prestigious Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Dr. Yuval Steinitz (Likud), told United Press International.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat also knew to issue condemnations, he noted.
The Israelis want the Palestinians to take firm action and arrest Hamas leaders. Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) has said he needed time to rebuild his security apparatus that Israel destroyed during the intifada. However, Israeli officials argue the Palestinians have an effective police force in the Gaza Strip. That is where four soldiers were killed Sunday.
According to Israeli security sources, Rantisi was not just a spokesman and a political leader of the militant Hamas.
There is no clear distinction between the political and military echelon there, Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim said. "Everybody is involved in terror," he stressed.
An Israeli government statement said Rantisi, "is among the most extremist leaders of the criminal Hamas organization in Gaza. He has preached and directed murder, sabotage, terror and incitement for many years."
The army spokeswoman accused Hamas' leadership of having made, "a strategic decision to undermine the 'road map,' and ruin any chance of dialogue which may lead to a cease-fire and political negotiations."
In order to wreck the peace process Rantisi, "stepped up his murderous activities," the government statement said.
Sharon's media advisor, Raanan Gissin told UPI Rantisi coordinated Sunday's attack in the northern Gaza Strip. The three attackers came from three different groups –- Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and an extremist organization said to be a wing in Abbas' Fatah Party.
Rantisi, "uses terror to blow up the (peace) process and to bring about Abu Mazen's downfall," Gissin said. This is hard evidence, not speculation, he added.
The government statement said "The Palestinian Authority has been well aware of Rantisi's activities for some time but is taking no action to stop them. Thus, the state of Israel has been compelled to ... try to halt this arch-terrorist's murderous actions."
Past targeted killings of prominent Palestinians have led to deadly Palestinian bombings of Israeli civilians and the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavaam Zeevy.
Steinitz did not anticipate an increase in the overall number of attacks. Attacks planned for a later stage will be advanced, he predicted.
Still, Tuesday's actions fueled Israeli opposition criticism.
Knesset Member Matan Vilnay (Labor), a former minister of science, said Hamas is a bitter enemy of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Abu Mazen, but "in our actions, we strengthen it."
Abu Mazen is losing stature the more the United States and Israel push him to a confrontation with his extremists, one of Sharon's critics, Knesset Member Yossi Sarid of the dovish Meretz Party, noted. "Whoever sent the helicopters ... should have taken into account that Rantisi won't be the victim, nor a woman and a girl, but Abu Mazen himself," Sarid said.
