Israeli missile kills terror chief

Twelve Palestinians, including a key official in the terrorist group Hamas, have been killed and up to 140 injured after an Israeli warplane bombed a residential building in Gaza City.

The midnight raid was part of a massive operation to assassinate Sheikh Salah Shehadeh, commander of the military wing of Hamas, who was today confirmed among the dead. His wife and three children were also killed, as were five other children and two babies.

Sheikh Shehadeh was number one on the Israeli list of wanted Palestinians in Gaza. But the missile attack, which caused the two-storey building to collapse as residents slept, left Israel facing fresh international condemnation today.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan immediately denounced the bombing. "Israel has the legal and moral responsibility to take all measures to avoid the loss of innocent life; it clearly failed to do so in using a missile against an apartment building," he said.

The list of the dead included two babies, aged 18 and two months, five children aged three to five, and an 11-year-old

Furious Palestinians declared a "Day of Rage" and promised to hit back. Amid the noise of demonstrators chanting "We want revenge", Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh said: "Not only will Hamas take revenge for the martyrs, all the Palestinian people will unite to revenge for the blood of the martyrs."

Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, a Hamas spokesman, added: "This is a massacre against our people. Hamas's retaliation will come very soon, and there won't be only just one attack. After this crime, even Israelis in their homes will be the target of our operations."

The air strike came as Palestinians and Israelis were trading ideas to relieve tension in the West Bank. Part of the bargaining was to have been an end to Israeli assassination attempts. But today Israeli foreign ministry official Gideon Meir said the attack was a "strike against a known terrorist who is responsible for hundreds of attacks on Israeli civilians in recent years".

He expressed regret for the loss of life. "To our great sorrow, in these operations, sometimes, and in military operations, civilians are also killed."

The attack was completely unexpected. Palestinian police officer Jamal Halaby said he saw the missile streaking across the sky, followed by the sound of a large explosion. "I fell out of my bed and I found myself a minute later covered in dust and stones, and the sounds of my children screaming and crying."

Sources have told the Evening Standard that Shehadeh moved to the residential block last year after Israeli forces destroyed his house in a refugee camp.

He had been renting an apartment and many of his neighbours did not know who he was. This has prompted speculation that the Israelis must have been assisted by a collaborator.

Muhammed Khatib, a Gaza resident said: "People want to attack any Israeli target. Those who are calling for peace are being denounced as traitors."

Fuelling much of the anger is the knowledge that none of the recent suicide bombers have come from Gaza and a belief that Shehadeh would have been hard pressed to have played any major part in recent atrocities on the West Bank because the area around his home is sealed off. The authorities are bracing themselves for more violence when the funerals begin today.

In nearly 22 months of fighting 1,779 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 778 on the Israeli side. The military wing of Hamas has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks against Israelis, including many suicide bomb attacks. Hamas has also been behind almost daily mortar attacks on Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

And yet there have been reports of a deal to end or at least limit the violence. Under the plan, the Palestinians would undertake to confiscate illegal weapons and arrest militants. In return Israel would free prisoners arrested in the fighting, end its strikes on Palestinian targets and its "targeted killings" of militants.