Israeli Strike in Gaza Kills a Hamas Leader and 14 Others
An Israeli warplane fired a missile early this morning into the Gaza City home of a top leader of the violent group Hamas, killing at least 15 people, including several children, Hamas and hospital officials in Gaza said. Officials said more than 140 people were wounded in the attack.

After initial conflicting reports about the fate of the militant leader, Sheik Salah Shehada, a founder of the military wing of Hamas and one of Israel's most wanted men, his death was confirmed on Tuesday. Ishmail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas official, said that the sheik was dead and his brigades had confirmed his death in a statement issued in Gaza City.

The Israeli strike, against a three-story house in a densely populated warren of cinder-block homes, came as Arab leaders were reported to be pressuring Hamas to refrain from suicide strikes against Israelis.

Previous killings by Israel of leaders of Hamas have preceded spikes in the violence here. Israel maintains that such targeted killings, which Palestinians call assassinations, are essential to its self-defense.

Hamas vowed retaliation today.

"There is nothing in our hands but to respond with whatever power we have," said Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar, a political leader of Hamas, who went to Shifa Hospital to identify the dead. "Every Israeli is a target now. No one will stop us from defending ourselves." Speaking by telephone, Dr. Zahar said he had seen the body parts of several children.

Palestinian television early today showed people digging through rubble at the scene of the missile strike, near the Jabaliya refugee camp. Witnesses described body parts strewn in the street near the remains of Sheik Shehada's house, the missile's target.

"I didn't know where to go, what to do to save myself or my children," one man who was wounded in the attack told Palestinian television from his hospital bed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/23/international/middleeast/23GAZA.html