Israel airstrike kills 4; Hamas challenges Abbas

By Labib Nasir

GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli airstrike killed two Islamic
Jihad militants and two other people in Gaza on Monday,
including an eight-year-old boy, Palestinian medics and
witnesses said.

The Israeli army confirmed the strike but offered few
details. It came on the eve of formal campaigning for Israel’s
elections on March 28 and after interim Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert vowed to use an “iron fist” against militants.

In Ramallah, Hamas legislators threw down the gauntlet to
President Mahmoud Abbas, revoking all decisions made by the
previous Palestinian parliament at its final session last
month, including legislation giving him wider powers to appoint
judges.

Hamas trounced Abbas’s once-dominant Fatah movement in
parliamentary elections on January 25 and is in the midst of
forming a government.

A senior Abbas aide accused Hamas of attempting to oust the
Palestinian president.

“We see this as a coup attempt to change the regime and
they (Hamas) have to seriously reconsider their decisions,”
said the aide, Tayeb Abdel-Rahim.

In the final session of the previous parliament on February
13, majority Fatah members pushed through an amendment to an
existing law, giving Abbas power to appoint judges to a
constitutional court without seeking legislative approval.

The judges could have been asked to decide whether laws
approved by the new parliament were constitutional. Hamas said
the move effectively gave Abbas veto power over new laws.

SPIKE IN VIOLENCE

The two Islamic Jihad militants were killed when a missile
struck their car in northern Gaza, from where militants have
fired makeshift rockets into Israel in the past.

Witnesses said the eight-year-old child was killed while
standing close to the car. A fourth person also died, a
hospital official said, although it was unclear whether that
person was riding in the car or standing nearby.

Nine people were wounded, including several children.

A spike in violence has increased pressure on Olmert to
show he is as ready to take tough military action as was Ariel
Sharon, who remains comatose after a stroke two months ago that
propelled Olmert to the front of the election campaign.

Israeli worries about security have intensified since
Hamas’ election victory, although the group, officially
committed to Israel’s destruction, has largely adhered to a
year-old truce.

Abbas, a moderate who helped broker the ceasefire with
Israel a year ago, has urged Hamas to put together a government
that will pursue a peace agenda.

He has also issued several presidential decrees to expand
the powers of his office in the wake of Hamas’ election win.

Earlier on Monday Fatah members stormed out of the first
working session of the new parliament in Ramallah in protest.

“We would have preferred Fatah not withdraw but it’s up to
them. We voted to cancel all the resolutions that were taken in
the February 13 session because the entire session was
unconstitutional,” Hamas lawmaker Mahmoud Ramahi told Reuters.

UNILATERAL ACTION

Hamas, whose popularity is based in large part on its broad
network of social programs, has said it reserves the right to
pursue armed struggle against Israel and that talks with its
enemy would be a waste of time.

Israeli officials see the Hamas victory as reinforcing a
need for unilateral action and say it dims hopes for a
U.S.-backed peace “road map” which calls for both sides to take
steps to reach a negotiated settlement.

On Sunday, Israeli officials said Olmert planned a
unilateral evacuation of some settlements in the occupied West
Bank if he wins the March 28 elections.

Under the four-year plan, which Olmert will propose to the
United States, the settlers would be relocated to bigger
settlement blocs but Israel would not withdraw its forces from
evacuated areas as it did during last year’s Gaza pullout.

Israel says it will not negotiate with Hamas, which wants
to replace all of the state of Israel with an Islamic state.

Hamas has masterminded nearly 60 suicide bombings against
Israelis since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000.

(With additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah, Corinne
Heller and Jonathan Saul in Jerusalem)