Hamas wing vows to avenge Israeli raids

The latest victim was a 29-year-old taxi driver, Yasser Abu Jarad, killed by a tank shell by a national security post in the Beit Hanun region of the northern Gaza Strip as he dropped off members of a military unit.

A total of 21 other people were also wounded in shelling in the north, including 10 when a house in Jabaliya was hit, which came as part of efforts by the Israeli army to put a halt to the firing of rockets into southern Israel.

A series of air strikes on the Gaza Strip Friday night and Saturday left 14 people dead, making it much the deadliest bout of violence since Hamas's upset victory in a January election and subsequent formation of its first government last month.

The Islamist movement has carried out the bulk of the suicide attacks against Israel since the Palestinian uprising erupted in September 2000.

Although it has held off any such attacks for more than a year, Hamas has so far resisted international pressure to commit itself to non-violence and recognise Israel's right to exist.

The United States and European Union announced over the weekend that they were either cutting or suspending direct aid payments to the already cash-strapped Palestinian Authority now that it is led by Hamas in the absence of a change in its hardline platform.

However the prospects of a Hamas u-turn looked particularly dim Sunday after its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, vowed to avenge the Israeli attacks.

"The Zionist enemy will pay a high price and will drink from the same cup from which our people drink day and night," it said in a statement.

Hamas's interior minister Said Siam urged all the armed factions to exercise caution, telling them to steer clear of training camps after one such base was bombed. "It is clear that the camps are targets of the occupation forces," said Siam.

The statement by the Hamas armed wing also backed its political masters' refusal to buckle to pressure from the West on the financial front.

"We confirm our whole-hearted support for the elected Palestinian government which has been under pressure and has had obstacles placed in its way," it said.

Meanwhile, interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday he believed "the time is right" for a unilateral settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as he began selling to Americans his plan that would leave parts of the West Bank under permanent Israeli control.

The comment came as the United States and Europe stepped up pressure on the Hamas-led Palestinian government, urging it to renounce violence, recognise the Jewish state as well as previous Israeli-Palestinian accords as the basis for future diplomatic efforts.

The allies on Friday froze millions of dollars in direct financial aid to the Palestinian Authority because Hamas refused to change its hardline approach to Israel.