A senior Hamas leader survived an Israeli assassination attempt on Wednesday but at least five other Palestinians were killed in the night-time explosion that tore through his Gaza home.

Hamas gunmen said a missile fired by an Israeli drone hit the residence of Ahmed al-Jabari, a top commander in the militant Islamic group's armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades. Doctors said he suffered leg wounds.

"In an Israeli security forces operation in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces targeted a senior Hamas terrorist," the army said in a terse statement.

The army, which killed Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin in March and his successor, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, a month later in air strikes, did not say how the latest attack was carried out. Residents said they saw no aircraft at the time of the blast.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to pull Israeli settlers and soldiers out of the Gaza Strip by the end of next year and Israeli forces and Palestinian militants have been bent on scoring "victory" in the run-up to the withdrawal.

Medics said five people -- Jabari's son, a brother, a son-in-law, a cousin and one of Rantissi's son-in-laws -- were pronounced dead in hospital and about a dozen others were wounded. At least three of the dead were known militants.

"We heard a loud explosion and ran outside," one neighbor said. "We saw (Jabari's) house was completely on fire."

Jabari, in his 40s, spent 13 years in Israeli prisons before being released in 1995 under interim peace deals. Hamas, dedicated to Israel's destruction, has carried out dozens of suicide attacks during a nearly four-year-old Palestinian uprising.

Sharon approves more settler homes

On the Israeli political front Sharon, facing a mutiny in his right-wing Likud party over his plan to "disengage" from the Palestinians in Gaza, approved 1,000 more Israeli settler homes in the West Bank in a move that drew a cautious US response.

Likud holds a snap convention on Wednesday at which party nationalists hope to vote down his proposed alliance with the dovish Labour party led by Shimon Peres, a fervent proponent of withdrawal.

Sharon's aides said he would pursue his Gaza plan with a "unity" coalition whatever the result of the non-binding Likud vote.

The package of invitations to contractors to bid on the housing projects had been shelved several weeks ago to avoid possible discord with Washington, whose Middle East peace "road map" prescribes a freeze on settlement building.

But Housing Minister Tzipi Livni said the construction bids would adhere to "understandings" with the United States that new homes could be erected within current settlement boundaries.
 
US officials said Washington was studying details of the tenders before passing judgment.

"Our concern is to determine whether these tenders are consistent with the government of Israel's previous commitments on settlements," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters.

He denied there was a tacit agreement with Israel in which the United States would accept some settlement activity despite the road map accord.

One reason for the light US response to the housing bids was speculation within the Bush administration that Sharon needed the move for short-term political purposes and might not follow through on it, one US official said.

(China Daily via agencies August 18, 2004)