Israeli airstrike kills pair of militants

JERUSALEM -- Two Palestinian militants were killed by an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip and an Israeli soldier was fatally stabbed at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem on Thursday amid flaring tensions following a suicide bombing in Israel earlier this week.

 The Palestinian men, identified by Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades as members, were killed by missile fire at a house on the eastern fringe of the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. A third man was wounded, according to Palestinian medical officials. 



 The Israeli military said the chief target of the airstrike was Iyad Qadas, a senior militant organizer who had served as an aide to a leader of the group who was slain last month in an Israeli missile attack. Also killed was Iyad Najar, according to Palestinian officials. A third member of the militia, identified as Hader Rayan, was wounded. 



 Separately, the Israeli soldier, 20-year-old Nir Khana, was stabbed in the neck by a Palestinian man who pulled out a knife after arriving at the often-tense Kalandiya checkpoint between the northern end of Jerusalem from the West Bank city of Ramallah. The attacker was arrested; the motive was not immediately clear. 



 The deaths came as Israeli forces lobbed artillery shells and launched missiles from the air into the northern Gaza Strip to quell rocket salvoes into Israel by Palestinian fighters. 



 The exchanges of fire in the Gaza Strip have escalated since a suicide bomber belonging to Islamic Jihad killed five Israelis and injured dozens of others outside a shopping center in Israel on Monday. 



 Israel vowed a harsh response to Monday's attack in the coastal city of Netanya, and warned of expanded arrests and so-called targeted killings of militant leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 



 Israeli troops arrested more than 20 Islamic Jihad members in the West Bank before dawn Thursday. 



 During the exchange of fire in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian militants launched several homemade Kassam rockets into southern Israel in what they said was retaliation for an Israeli airstrike Wednesday that killed a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees in Rafah, at the southern tip of the coastal sliver. 



 Before Thursday's airstrike, Israel fired shells into unpopulated areas of the northern Gaza Strip that have served as launching pads for the Kassam rockets. In addition, Israeli aircraft fired missiles near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip in response to a rocket attack into southern Israel. Palestinian officials said four Palestinian bystanders were injured in that airstrike. 



 Meanwhile, Palestinian authorities said they had arrested about three dozen members of Islamic Jihad in the West Bank as part of an investigation into Monday's suicide bombing. The suspects were arrested in several cities, including Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron. 



 Tawfiq abu Khoussa, spokesman for the Palestinian Interior Ministry, said the suspects were to be questioned over their possible ties to the attack, though it was not clear how many would remain in custody. He said additional arrests could be made. 



 "The campaign is ongoing, depending on the investigation," he said. 



 Islamic Jihad, a small hard-line group calling for Israel's destruction, decried the arrests by Palestinian authorities, saying the officials were aiding Israel. The group said its actions, including the suicide bombing, were retaliation for what they called Israeli violations, including arrests and killings of its leaders. 



 Israeli officials have criticized Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for not doing more to crack down on armed groups, though an informal cease-fire that he brokered among the main militias early this year has brought down violence during recent months. 



 Since Monday's bombing, Israel has clamped tightly on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, barring most Palestinians from entering Israel. 



 Israeli officials also suspended talks aimed at opening bus convoys for Palestinians seeking to travel between Gaza and West Bank. The planned convoys, scheduled to start running next Thursday, are part of a agreement on border crossings that was brokered by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a visit here last month and hailed by American officials as a breakthrough accord. The suspension of preparatory talks has thrown that timetable into doubt. 



 Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, who arrived Thursday for meetings with both sides, was expected to try to put talks back on track.