Islamic Jihad

Israeli aircraft fired missiles Thursday night at a car carrying members of the Palestinian militant organization Islamic Jihad in the northern Gaza Strip, killing all four men inside the vehicle and three civilian bystanders. One of those in the car was identified as a senior Islamic Jihad commander. The dead bystanders included two teen-agers, and about a dozen other people were hurt, Palestinian medical officials said.

A Palestinian suicide bomber slipped into a crowd lining up for sandwiches in northern Israel on Wednesday, setting off a thunderous blast that killed five people, wounded more than 20 and dimmed hopes for diplomatic progress in the wake of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The explosion, at a popular falafel stand at the entrance to an open-air market in this coastal town, left pools of blood and scraps of flesh amid a scattering of melons, onions and apples from nearby produce stalls.

Israeli troops raided a West Bank hide-out early Monday and shot to death a senior commander of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad and one of his top aides, military spokesmen and Palestinian officials said. The killing of Luai Saadi, a most-wanted fugitive who Israeli authorities say orchestrated attacks that killed 12 Israelis this year, drew threats of vengeance from Islamic Jihad.

An Israeli military raid on a West Bank refugee camp killed four Palestinian militants Wednesday, and a Palestinian stabbed an Orthodox Jew to death in Jerusalem, officials and witnesses said. At the Tulkarm camp, Israeli soldiers surrounded a house and exchanged fire with militants inside and outside, witnesses said. Residents said the dead were members of Islamic Jihad. Two other Palestinians were wounded, they said.

Israel hinted Wednesday that it was returning to a policy of "targeted killings" of Palestinian militants, a practice it had largely abandoned under a truce struck four months ago. It appeared that the immediate threat of assassination applied only to members of Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for recent attacks against Israelis.

The Palestinian Authority has released two militants jailed in connection with a Tel Aviv suicide bombing, hoping to ensure that the Islamic Jihad militia abides by the truce with Israel, Palestinian officials said Friday. The release was part of a package of gestures that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made to militant groups Thursday after renewed violence with Israel.

Attorneys for three terrorism defendants told jurors Tuesday the men were never associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and had innocent explanations for comments that were wiretapped by investigators. Federal prosecutors say Sameeh Hammoudeh, Ghassan Zayed Ballut, Hatem Naji Fariz and their codefendant, Sami Al-Arian, a fired University of South Florida professor, worked to raise money in the U.S. to further the goals of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The case file of the French homeboys who joined the Iraqi jihad contains a startling photo. It's the mug shot of Salah, the alleged point man in Damascus, Syria, who authorities say arranged for guns and safe passage into Iraq for extremists from Paris. Salah has a serious expression beneath a short Afro-style haircut. He looks as if he's posing, reluctantly, for a middle school yearbook. When Salah left for Damascus with the jihadis last summer, he was 13 years old. "He's just a little kid!"

Israeli troops killed a suspected operative of the radical group Islamic Jihad in a predawn shootout Thursday in the northern West Bank, the army's first fatal confrontation with a wanted Palestinian militant in more than six weeks. The killing could complicate efforts by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to formalize an agreement under which the main militant organizations, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, would stop their attacks on Israel.

Israel on Saturday declared that Syria was responsible for a Palestinian suicide attack on a Tel Aviv nightclub that killed four Israelis, wounded dozens and threatened to taint the conciliatory atmosphere that has taken hold since the death of Yasser Arafat.