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Gaza: Israel killed 13 Palestinian militants in air strikes in the Gaza Strip that marked its most deadly military response in months to frequent rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled territory.
Islamic Jihad, the group behind many of the rocket launchings that have been disrupting life in southern Israel, said four of its members were killed yesterday as they walked out of a mosque in the Jebeliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Hours earlier, air strikes killed seven Islamic Jihad militants, including a senior Gaza commander, prompting the group to threaten suicide bombings inside the Jewish state.
Israel has not been hit by a suicide bombing in 11 months, a respite that helped pave the way for renewed peace efforts with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
In Paris, where he attended an international donors meeting that followed last month's Annapolis peace conference, Abbas called on Israel to stop construction of Jewish colonies in the occupied West Bank. He described the building work as "an obstacle that hampers negotiations".
Top commander dead
Israeli Vice-Premier Haim Ramon, speaking on Army Radio, said construction was largely limited to colony blocs Israel intended to keep in any peace deal with the Palestinians.
In Khan Younis, an air strike on a Hamas security position killed two members of the group. Palestinian officials said Majid Al Harazeen, one of the Islamic Jihad dead, was the most senior militant commander to be killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip in more than a year.
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