Haaretz is reporting the death by an Israeli missile strike of the Hamas-appointed Palestinian security chief and Popular Resistance Committees leader Jamal Abu Samhadana, in Gaza.
Abu Samhadana told The Sunday Telegraph in April: “We have only one enemy. They are Jews. We have no other enemy. I will continue to carry the rifle and pull the trigger whenever required to defend my people.”
Or not, as the case may be.
According to Haaretz:
Abu Samhadana, who headed the Popular Resistance Committees, was killed along with at least three other PRC operatives, and 10 more were wounded, hospital officials said.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed striking the PRC camp in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, saying militants there were planning a large-scale attack on Israel. The IDF declined to comment on whether the strike had been a “targeted assassination.”
…..
A spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees vowed revenge.
“The Zionists and Israelis have opened the gates of hell by assassinating Abu Samhadana,” said PRC spokesman Abu Abir.
“The Zionist entity and Zionist settlements near Gaza will not feel security and safety any more. Our rockets will rain into the Zionist entity and our heroes will blow themselves up among their dirty bodies,” said a spokesman for the group.
I know it’s wrong to be complacent, but doesn’t this “gates of hell” talk (and similar blood-curdling rhetoric, which I must admit Palestinian and Islamist terrorists are very good at) after each terrorist leader is eliminated lose its sting after awhile? It’s like they’re reading from a script, although they always manage to bring themselves to a fever pitch of anger while the cameras are on.
(Hat tip: Adloyada.)
David T adds:
Hamas is apparently sorrowed by the death of Zarqawi:
The ruling Palestinian faction Hamas on Thursday deplored the killing by U.S. warplanes of the al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, describing him as a casualty of a crusade against Arabs and Muslims.
Hamas had distanced itself in the past from violence abroad blamed on al Qaeda, but in a statement faxed to Reuters after Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air strike north of Baghdad on Wednesday,it said it mourned the Jordanian-born insurgent as a “martyr of the (Muslim Arab) nation”.
“With hearts full of faith, Hamas commends brother-fighter Abu Musab … who was martyred at the hands of the savage crusade campaign which targets the Arab homeland, starting in Iraq
Boohoo.
Update: Here’s more on Abu Samhadana’s bloody history.
In much more tragic news, misdirected Israeli army shelling apparently killed seven civilians, including children, in Gaza. The IDF has apologized, ordered a temporary halt of artillery fire into Gaza and launched an investigation.
