Special report: Israel launches Gaza assault

    RAMALLAH, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Israeli troops killed a senior Palestinian militant in an ambush in West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday morning and wounded four others, eyewitnesses said.

    The elite Israeli forces stormed a neighborhood in the city and ambushed Fadi Qufaisha, 32, a field commander of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, armed wing of Fatah movement, said the witnesses. They added that Israeli soldiers appeared suddenly and shot at Qufaisha as he was walking in the city.

    Medical sources said that Qufaisha died after a brief exchange of fire with the troops. Four others were moderately wounded. To the assassination of its leader, the al-Aqsa Brigades vowed on Thursday to respond with "several suicide attacks deep inside Israel".

    A spokesman of the brigades in West Bank, who identified himself as Abu Udai, said that "our operations will be carried out inside Israel in response to the assassination of Qufaisha," vowing that "we will show you (the Israelis) painful strikes." Earlier on Thursday, Israeli troops pulled out of the Shijaiya district in eastern Gaza, after six days of fighting in the area, which had left 20 Palestinians killed, including three children and nine civilians.

    An Israeli army spokesman told Israel Radio that the Israeli soldiers during the ground operation discovered two underground tunnels used by militants to infiltrate and carry out attacks against Israel.

    Israel has killed more than 200 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, during its offensive in Gaza after the abduction of an Israeli soldier in late June by Palestinian militants. Israel had pulled troops and settlers out of Gaza last year after 38 years of occupation.

    On the same day, Palestinian militant groups claimed responsibility for firing more than 10 homemade rockets from northern Gaza Strip to the southern Israeli town of Sderout. The Israeli army spokesman said that some of the rockets hit constructions in the town, adding that several Israeli civilians were treated after being shocked and panicked by the attacks.Enditem