JERUSALEM — Israeli helicopter gunships on Monday fired three rockets at a Palestinian van in the Gaza Strip, killing the driver, who was a leading member of the militant Islamic Jihad group, Palestinian security officials said.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment.
The United States has criticized Israel's policy of pinpointed killings of Palestinians suspected of involvement in attacks on Israelis.
More than a dozen Palestinians have been killed in targeted operations attributed to Israel in six months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, but there hadn't been any such killings since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office last month.
The man killed Monday was Mohammed Abdel Al, 29, a married father of three and a member of the military wing of Islamic Jihad, said a cousin, Samu Abdel Al.
Four Israeli helicopter gunships hovered above Abdel Al's van near the Rafah refugee camp on the border with Egypt, and two of the gunships unleashed rockets, the victim's cousin said. A passenger was critically injured, Palestinian police said.
The killing came a day after an Israeli reserve soldier was killed in a firefight near the West Bank town of Nablus. Palestinians shot at an army post, and Israeli troops returned fire, apparently causing no injuries.
In a leaflet distributed in the West Bank, a Palestinian group calling itself the "Return Brigade" said it attacked the army post to avenge the deaths of five Palestinians from the Nablus area killed last week in clashes with Israeli soldiers.
In response to the killing of the soldier, the army sealed off the village of Salem near Nablus from which the fatal shots were fired Sunday night. Earth movers dug up asphalt, earth and rocks and heaped them on the road, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was to visit Monday with President Bush in Washington. He hoped to nudge the new administration into deeper engagement in the Middle East peace process.
Mubarak has urged the United States not to step back from its peace-brokering role.
In six months of fighting, more than 435 people have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian clashes, most of them Palestinians. In the divided West Bank town of Hebron, a gas canister explosion destroyed a Palestinian grocery store and two adjacent shops Sunday. Six Israeli policemen were lightly injured in the blast, police spokesman Rafi Yaffe said.
The connecting walls between the shops and all three roofs collapsed.
Six Israeli policemen who were passing by were lightly injured in the blast, and three had to be hospitalized, police spokesman Rafi Yaffe said. Seven other gas canisters were found nearby. The police and the army suspect all the canisters were planted by Jewish settlers, Yaffe said.
"In the past week, there were many violent acts by Jews in Hebron," Col. Avi Feder, deputy police commissioner in the West Bank, said on army radio.
The settlers live in a string of downtown enclaves protected by large numbers of Israeli soldiers and police.
In the past six months, settler homes have repeatedly come under fire from Palestinian-controlled areas, and tensions reached a boiling point with the killing of the infant last week. In recent days, settlers have scuffled with Israeli forces and torched Palestinian-owned cars and shops.
Approximately 30,000 Palestinians live in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron. They have been under curfew for most of the past six months.
On Monday morning, an Israeli woman soldier was struck on the head with an iron bar on a Jerusalem street and her M-16 assault rifle was stolen, police said. The assailant, apparently a Palestinian, got away, police said. An M-16 was later found in the bushes in the neighborhood.
Officers backed by a helicopter searched for the assailant. The soldier was taken to a hospital with a light injury.
Also, the Israelis detained the head of the Palestinian naval forces in the West Bank, Issam Bladi, 51, as he was returning from a visit to Lebanon and Jordan, Palestinian sources said. He was apprehended at the Allenby Bridge border crossing with Jordan, the sources added. Despite Bladi's title, the Palestinians have no naval vessels in the landlocked West Bank.