A senior leader of Hamas' Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades has been killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. Medics and witnesses said a missile from an Israeli drone struck a vehicle on Thursday and killed Adnan al-Ghoul, who has been on Israel's most wanted list since 1987. The Israeli army offered no immediate comment on the attack which also killed Imad Abbas, another Hamas activist. Aljazeera's correspondent in Gaza said al-Ghoul was one of the top Palestinian engineers involved in developing al-Qassam rockets that are often fired by resistance fighters into Israeli territory. He had survived two previous Israeli assassination attempts in the past two years, one of which killed his son. The news of his killing brought dozens of resistance fighters to the morgue. They fired from their rifles in the air and shouted for revenge. Angry crowds vowed revengefor al-Ghoul's death "The reaction will be painful and an unforgettable lesson to the Zionist enemy," said Hamas spokesman Mushi al-Masri. Al-Ghoul's killing came amid a surge in violence ahead of next week's vote in the Israeli parliament on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw Jewish settlers and troops from occupied parts of Gaza. An Israeli army spokesman said troops killed two Palestinians on Thursday after they spotted them trying to infiltrate Israel from north Gaza. **Soldier killed*** In southern Gaza, an Israeli soldier was killed in what appeared to be a bomb or anti-tank missile attack along the Gaza-Egypt border, an army spokesman said. The explosion occurred in an army buffer zone between Gaza's border with Egypt and the nearby Rafah refugee camp, a frequent flashpoint in a four-year-old Palestinian revolt against the Israel occupation. Sharon intends to remove all 21 settlements from Gaza and four of 120 settlements in the West Bank by the end of 2005 to "disengage" from conflict with the Palestinians. The parliament vote could make or break his government and show whether Israel is prepared to abandon occupied territory for the first time in more than two decades. The prime minister faces opposition from Zionists who believe all of Palestine should be Israeli land. However, Palestinians and many Israeli Arab parliament members regard Sharon's plan as a ruse to keep most of the West Bank in Israeli hands. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Palestinians inspect the damage to a car after it was hit by a missile in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, October 21, 2004. (Reuters)