Israeli press uneasy over Gaza attack

The attack has been criticised for its civilian toll

Israel's press is split over the merits of Tuesday's missile attack in Gaza, while the Palestinian reaction is united in defiance.

Most Hebrew papers agree that Sheikh Salah Shahada of the radical group Hamas was a legitimate target.

Everything was taken into consideration

Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer

There is criticism, however, over the death of 14 civilians - including nine children - in the Gaza attack.

Ha'aretz says that the Gaza killing was not a pinpointed operation and that it has hampered progress toward a ceasefire.

The Palestinian daily Al-Quds agrees, predicting that the raid would have "serious repercussions" on the small steps taken by the Palestinians to calm the situation.

Timing questioned

But it asks if the timing was a coincidence, or an indication of Israel "escalating tension whenever there are signs towards peace?"

Yediot Aharonot, meanwhile, reports that Tanzim, Hamas and Islamic Jihad had agreed to declare a ceasefire only hours before the attack.

It seems that Palestinian blood is not as red as Israeli blood

Al-Quds

It says that Israel's political and military establishment knew of the ceasefire initiative.

However, although it questions the timing of the attack, the centrist daily calls the targeting of Mr Shahada justified.

Ma'ariv agrees, saying that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made a mistake, but not about the target.

It reports that Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer rejects the notion that the assassination and civilian deaths has ruined the chance of a ceasefire.

"Everything was taken into consideration," he told the newspaper.

Green light

That cold-hearted announcement overshadowed the air force's public expressions of regret

Ha'aretz

Ha'aretz criticises Mr Sharon for describing the killing of the head of Hamas's military wing as "one of our greatest successes".

"That cold-hearted announcement overshadowed the air force's public expressions of regret for the deaths of 14 civilians, including women and children", the paper says.

A commentary in Ma'ariv reminds readers that US President George Bush has given Mr Sharon a green light to fight Palestinian terrorism.

With a different slant, the issue of the "green light" is highlighted in an official statement from Hamas.

It says that the Israelis had committed another "heinous" crime "with a green light from the United States and covered by an Arab, Islamic, and international silence".

Al-Quds also bemoans the international silence, with special criticism directed at the media.

"It seems that Palestinian blood is not as red as Israeli blood," it writes.

Some positives

A writer in Ha'aretz sees some positive outcomes from the "tragic harm done to the children".

We shall stay here on this land, and even if our children perish Palestine will give birth to others

Mother of five boys injured in raid

"The determination to strike at the murderers and their accomplices" will make Palestinian society realise that suicide bombings are not "cost-efficient", he predicts.

Hatzofe, the mouthpiece of the National Religious Party, says that the terrorists must now understand that hiding among civilians will no longer prevent Israel from settling its accounts with them.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa describes Tuesday as "a day of popular and international anger that our people will never forget".

It compares the attack with the massacres at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982.

Wafa quotes Samirah Hijazi, whose says five of her sons are in hospital following the raid, as saying that the Palestinians will not give up on achieving statehood.

"We shall stay here on this land, and even if our children perish, Palestine will give birth to others, because our roots are deeper and stronger."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.