Office of Palestinian prime minister hit by Israeli missile

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – An Israeli attack helicopter fired a missile early today into the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, intensifying pressure on the Hamas government in efforts to free an Israeli soldier held captive by militants claiming loyalty to the Islamist group.

Haniyeh was not in the four-story building at the time of the attack, which took place shortly before 2 a.m. Since the start of Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip last week, he has largely stayed out of sight, working primarily from his residence in a Gaza City refugee camp, where he lives with his wife and 11 children.

The Israeli strike almost certainly was not intended to kill Haniyeh, but appeared instead to be an explicit warning – and a powerful symbolic show of displeasure over the continued captivity of the soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

The Israeli military confirmed it had carried out the attack. Israel says it holds Haniyeh’s government responsible for Shalit’s abduction and weeklong captivity, even though the prime minister and other senior officials have disavowed any previous knowledge of the raid in which the soldier was captured. The assailants included members of Hamas’ military wing.

The roar of low-flying Israeli helicopter gunships filled the air before today’s precision strike sent flames leaping into the skies over the darkened city. Haniyeh’s office, in a compound in central Gaza City, is not far from the residence of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Three security guards were reported injured in the strike, which brought ambulances and vehicles belonging to the Palestinian security forces racing to the scene.

A short time later, Israeli missiles hit a training camp in the Jabaliya refugee camp belonging to a controversial Hamas-run police force. One man, believed to be a member of the unit, was reported killed.

Before Hamas won parliamentary elections in January and assumed control of the government two months later, Haniyeh was the target of several Israeli assassination attempts, like virtually all senior figures in the group. He was a personal aide to Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas spiritual leader who was killed in an Israeli missile strike in March 2004.

Hours before the Israeli attacks, Abbas said the crisis over the captured soldier was at a “critical, sensitive” stage. He expressed hopes Shalit could be freed through mediation efforts.

A deputy minister in the Hamas government, Ziad abu Ain, said he had been told by an intermediary that the soldier had received medical treatment for wounds suffered in last Sunday’s raid and was in stable condition.