Israeli helicopters hit Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip today after attacks this week by Palestinian militants killed 13 soldiers and dealing the Middle East's mightiest army its worst blow in two years.
Islamic Jihad said helicopter missiles struck a Gaza City seminary housing its leader Mohammed al-Hindi's office but that he was safely in hiding. The premises of a pro-Jihad charity were also attacked. Israel called both targets militant fronts.
In Rafah, a Gaza refugee camp, an Israeli helicopter razed an the Israeli army said was a Islamic Jihad bomb laboratory. Palestinian witnesses described the building as the home of a local group commander who escaped, while a woman bystander was wounded.
Thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed this week in Gaza City and Rafah ambushes claimed by Islamic Jihad and kindred militant group Hamas as coups in a three-and-a-half-year Palestinian revolt.
The latest incursion comes a polls show deepening support in Israel for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout plan which has been stalled by hardliners in his own party.