Hamas Leader

On the first Friday since Israel ended its 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip, some Palestinians gathered for weekly mass devotions by spreading prayer rugs on the streets outside the wreckage of mosques devastated by missile strikes. Among those not making a public appearance, however, was the top local political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh. Rumors had been rife that Haniyeh, an Islamic religious scholar, would emerge from weeks of hiding to deliver a sermon.

Palestinians emerged cautiously from their hiding places to behold the carnage and devastation in the Gaza Strip on Sunday after a 22-day Israeli military offensive gave way to tentative calm when Hamas followed Israel in declaring a cease-fire. At least 100 bodies were recovered from the rubble, Palestinian medical authorities said, raising the death toll among residents of the coastal strip to at least 1,300, with thousands more wounded and left homeless.

On a day of action on military and diplomatic fronts, Israeli soldiers Thursday drove deep into Gaza City, killed two top Hamas leaders and incurred withering international criticism for shelling a United Nations compound full of provisions for refugees. Despite the assault, Hamas fighters managed to fire at least 26 rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel. A rocket seriously wounded a woman and a 7-year-old boy in Beersheba, about 26 miles from Gaza, and injured three others.

Rashan abu Eisha staggered out of the flaming shell of his family's three-story home, covered in dust and cradling his injured 6-year-old son. Minutes earlier, around 1:30 a.m. Monday, a pair of Israeli missiles had slammed into the base of the building, presumably targeting Abu Eisha's brother Zakaria, a prominent local Hamas commander.

Israeli airstrikes Friday killed at least eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amid mounting speculation that a long-threatened land invasion of the coastal territory would begin soon. As warplanes swooped overhead, supporters of the militant group Hamas, which has controlled Gaza for 18 months, laid to rest one of the movement's senior spiritual and military leaders, an advocate of suicide bombings, in a public funeral.

An Israeli missile strike in the Gaza Strip killed a major Hamas political and military leader Thursday, and most of his family, as the militant group continued to launch rockets deep into Israeli territory. The dueling strikes came amid rising international calls for an end to the bloodshed, which has killed at least 418 Palestinians and four Israelis.

Jimmy Carter's embrace of the radical Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas -- he actually hugged a senior Hamas official this week -- means that Ramsey Clark may finally get a run for his money as America's most embarrassing ex-somebody. But no one should take the former president's freelance diplomacy lightly. Far more sober foreign policy experts than Carter have urged an end to Hamas' isolation.

Former President Carter will meet Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, during a visit to Syria next week, a senior Hamas official said. Carter Center spokeswoman Deanna Congileo confirmed that Carter planned a trip to the Middle East but could not confirm the specific meeting.

Cross-border hostilities between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip continued for a second day Thursday as Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians, including five young boys, and a Gaza-launched rocket struck a home in the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon. The airstrikes brought the total Palestinian death toll to 29 during the two-day burst of violence. In Israel, officials said that more than 60 Kassam and Grad rockets had been launched from Gaza over the two days.

Re "A byline for Hamas?" Opinion, July 22 I would rather that people write Op-Ed articles than fire rockets or build illegal settlements. The protests of Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper are heartfelt, but their claim to moral superiority is empty. Israel had its own terrorist groups before it had its state, and the occupation of the West Bank after 1967 has made a mockery of international law.