GAZA CITY — An Israeli air strike that killed top Hamas military commander Ahmed Al-Jaabari Wednesday has “opened the gates of hell,” the armed wing of the ruling Islamist movement said. “The occupation has opened the gates of hell on itself,” said a statement from the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, which vowed its fighters would “continue the path of resistance,” pushing the two sides to the brink of a new war. The attacks marked the biggest escalation between Israel and Gaza militants since a 2008-09 conflict and came despite signs that neighboring Egypt had managed to broker a truce in the enclave after a five day surge of violence. Hamas said Al-Jaabari died along with an unnamed associate when their car was blown apart by an Israeli missile. Palestinians said nine people were killed, including a seven-year-old girl. Video from Gaza showed the charred and mangled wreckage of a car belching flames, as emergency crews picked up what appeared to be body parts. Israel confirmed it had carried out the attack on Jaabari and warned that more strikes would follow. Witnesses reported numerous explosions around Gaza, with Hamas security compounds and police stations among the targets. “This is an operation against terror targets of different organizations in Gaza,” military spokesman Avital Leibovitch told reporters, adding that Jaabari had “a lot of blood on his hands”. Immediate calls for revenge were broadcast over Hamas radio. “The occupation has opened the doors of hell,” Hamas's armed wing said. Smaller groups also vowed to strike back. “Israel has declared war on Gaza and they will bear the responsibility for the consequences,” Islamic Jihad said. The escalation in Gaza came in a week when Israel pounded Syrian artillery positions it said had fired into the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights amid a civil war in Syria that has brought renewed instability to neighboring Lebanon. Israel's intelligence agency Shin Bet said Jaabari was responsible for Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, when the militant group ousted fighters of the Fatah movement of its great rival, the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In another development, an Israeli official said Tel Aviv may try to topple President Abbas if he carries out a plan to ask the United Nations this month to upgrade the status of the Palestinian Authority. The upgrade would give the Palestinians a place in the world body akin to that of the Vatican — short of full membership as a sovereign state but as close as they can get without the full recognition that Israel says can only come from a peace treaty. A draft document from the office of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, seen by Reuters, said Israel must confront this challenge by means that could include “toppling (Abbas) and dismantling the Palestinian Authority”. Lieberman said in a speech at the settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank that if the Palestinian upgrade request was accepted by the UN General Assembly it could force Israel to punish the Palestinians. Newspaper reports say Israel instructed its ambassadors to warn it may revoke all or part of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which set up the Palestinian Authority under an interim peace agreement. — Agencies
