NABLUS, West Bank (Islamweb & News Agencies) - An Israeli missile strike assassinated a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance group Hamas, prompting a vow of revenge as Washington prepared a new mission hoping to end 14 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.The assassinated Hamas military leader, Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, was high on Israel's so-called most-wanted list. A Hamas official said his death near Nablus in the West Bank on Friday would be avenged.
``Experience has shown that the military wing of Hamas reacts to the Israeli crimes and always strikes back. God willing, there will be a painful response against the criminal enemy,'' Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, a Hamas political leader, said in Gaza.
Hanoud, his deputy Ayman Hashaikah, and a third man were killed when Israeli helicopters fired missiles at their car. Their bodies were so badly burned and dismembered that identification was delayed, Palestinian officials said.
The attack brought to at least seven the number of Palestinians to die violently on Friday, one day after five Palestinian boys were killed in an explosion in the Gaza Strip that Palestinian authorities blamed on an Israeli booby-trap.
``The grave Israeli escalation in the last 24 hours has exceeded all red lines,'' Nabil Abu Rdainah, a senior adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, said in a statement.
Rdainah accused Israel of trying to sabotage the U.S. peace effort, in which former U.S. Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns are due to arrive in the region on Monday.
The United States wants calm in the Middle East to bolster Arab support for its efforts to capture Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, who it says was behind the suicide plane attacks on Washington and New York on September 11.
At least 720 Palestinians and 188 Israelis have been killed since a uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September 2000, shortly after peace talks stalled.