Warplanes strike home of Hamas leader

Israeli warplanes attacked the Gaza City home of a senior Hamas leader today in a swift retaliation for twin suicide bombings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Hamas spokesman Mahmoud al-Zahar escaped with minor injuries when F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopter gunships hit his family home in a residential area of Gaza. Witnesses said he was in a nearby garden when the missiles struck, levelling the building.

Zahar's 24-year-old son Khaled and a 30-year-old bodyguard died in the attack, which also left Zahar's wife with serious injuries. Around 20 others were wounded.

Angry Palestinians gathered at the site of the strike, in Gaza City's Rimal neighbourhood, to help rush the injured to hospital and vent their anger at Israel.

Palestinian cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo called the latest strike "a crime which will fuel a new cycle of violence".

But Israeli government spokesman Jonathon Peled said: "Hamas are enemies of peace and one doesn't talk with them, one has to fight."

Hamas claimed responsibility for yesterday's two suicide bombings.

In the first blast, shortly after 6pm, the bomber struck a bus stop near an army base in Rishon LeTzion, near Tel Aviv. The explosion killed seven people.

A few hours later a second bomber devastated a café ©n Jerusalem's German Colony. Seven people were killed.

Ahmed Qureia, who has provisionally accepted the post of Palestinian prime minister, condemned the blasts, calling for renewed efforts to quell violence.

But Ranaan Gissin, aide to Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, said: "The Palestinian Authority is not discharging its responsibility."

This morning the death toll in the attacks rose to 15 after another victim of the Rishon Letzion blast died in hospital.