Israel kills Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari in Gaza strike

ISRAEL has assassinated the military leader of Hamas as part of a major new offensive in the Gaza Strip. 

In aerial attacks on 20 positions which Israel said were rocket-launching facilities, including some underground facilities, Israel killed six Palestinians. It prompted outrage from militants who said the Jewish state had opened "the gates of hell.''

Egypt has recalled the ambassador to Israel after the air strikes, while Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi was preparing to organise an emergency Arab foreign ministerial meeting to respond to the attacks, a league official said.

Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, in 1979, previously withdrew its ambassador after the second Palestinian intifada that began in 2000, when president Hosni Mubarak was in power. Israel's new operation followed the firing of more than 120 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel over the last week.

Early today, Israel and Hamas confirmed that Ahmed Jabari, the commander of Hamas' military wing, had been killed as he travelled in a car in Gaza City. Israel released a video showing a direct hit on Jabari's car.

Jabari had been on Israel's wanted list for more than a decade and was believed to have been a mastermind behind the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

A further escalation of the conflict is now likely with Hamas and other militant groups in the Gaza expected to intensify the firing of rockets. Over the last week 124 missiles were fired into southern Israel.

There were no fatalities but four Israelis were injured. Many of the rockets landed in desert areas and many of those which were heading towards population centres were intercepted by Israel's "Iron Dome" anti-missile system.

Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak had warned in recent days that Israel would respond to the rocket attack with "an ever-growing intensity."  "Hamas is responsible for the rocket fire and all other attempts to harm our soldiers and civilians, even when other groups participate," he said. "And it is Hamas that will pay the heavy price."

Hamas is the militant Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip, a strip of land along the Mediterranean Ocean between Israel and Egypt. Hamas' more moderate rival, Fatah, administers the West Bank under Israeli military occupation.

The strike prompted an outpouring of grief and anger, with armed men firing weapons into the air outside Shifa hospital in Gaza City, and mosques throughout the city calling prayers to mourn the commander's death. The Qassam Brigades issued a furious communique in response to Jaabari's death, saying Israel had "opened the gates of hell on itself.''

And Fawzi Barhum, a spokesman for the political wing of the ruling Islamist movement said it was tantamount to a "declaration of war.''  "The occupation committed a dangerous crime and crossed all the red lines, which is considered a declaration of war,'' he said in a statement.  "The occupation will pay dearly for this and we will make it regret the moment they thought about it.''

Israel Ziv, former head of the army's Gaza division, said the strike was "a very clear message to Hamas.'' "This is the beginning of a larger operation that will go on for the next few days,'' he told reporters. "There will surely be an escalation.''

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