Islamic Jihad Threatens Revenge

Islamic Jihad threatened yesterday to avenge the assassination of three of its activists in Gaza at the weekend with a wave of attacks that would mark "the blackest days in Israel's history".

About 25,000 people attended the funerals of the three men, who were killed by an Israeli helicopter missile strike on their car on Saturday evening.

The attack all but destroyed the vehicle and wounded about 15 passers-by, including a six-year-old boy who was in a serious condition after being hit by shrapnel. The dead included Mahmoud Joudah, the commander of an Islamic Jihad cell responsible for attacks on Jewish settlements in Gaza, including a suicide bomber on a bicycle who blew himself up near an army jeep on Friday.

At the funeral Abdallah al-Shami, the leader of Islamic Jihad, said: "The coming days will be the blackest days in Israel's history." Israel responded by closing border crossings from Gaza for Palestinians because of what it said was a heightened security threat.

The missile strike was not unexpected at the end of a week which included the killing of a soldier at a Gaza border crossing, the shooting of an Israeli couple by Palestinian gunmen near the 1967 green line, and a suicide bomb on a Jerusalem bus which murdered eight people.

Tensions were further raised in Gaza after the Israeli army discovered a 60 metre (197ft) tunnel from market stalls to an industrial zone where the soldier was killed. It was apparently used by the two gunmen responsible for the shooting, who were themselves killed shortly afterwards.

The army said such a long tunnel could not have been dug without the knowledge of Palestinian police stationed at the Erez border post metres away. Soldiers bulldozed dozens of market stalls around the tunnel entrance. Palestinians accused the Israelis of collective punishment.

In the West Bank, Ghassan Shaqa, the mayor of Nablus, resigned after accusing the Palestinian Authority of failing to control gangs terrorising the city. He blamed the PA for failing to rein in gangs carrying out extortion, kidnappings and killings. But critics said he had used some of the gangs against his rivals.