The raid by US-made F-16 fighter bombers and Apache helicopters -- the first since the start of the US-British war in Iraq (news - web sites) -- targeted militant leader Saad al-Arabid, "responsable for attacks which killed and wounded dozens of people," Israeli military sources said.
"Saad al-Arabid was a particularly dangerous terrorist," said Zeev Boim, deputy defence minister and a member of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s Likud party.
"We have not changed our policy on targeted operations against terrorists since the US intervention in Iraq," he added.
He said Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz "gave the order several months ago to attack the leaders of Hamas as the opportunity arose, which was the case in Gaza."
The attack, which occurred as German Foreign Minister Joshka Fischer met with Israeli officials to debate the Mideast roadmap for peace, targeted a car in which the Hamas militants were driving but the missile also hit nearby houses.
Shortly after the F16 strike, two Apache helicopters fired two missiles at the same area, they added, saying the second strike raised the death toll and doubled the number of injured as it hit emergency service workers and onlookers staring at the wreckage of the first missile.
Women and children were among the 47 wounded, eight of whom were said to be in critical condition.
Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, responded by firing a home-made missile from the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) into the southern Israeli town of Sderot, without causing damage or injury.
And around Israeli 15 tanks rumbled into the town of Beit Hanun, just north of Gaza City, at dawn in a raid which left one Palestinian man aged 21 dead, and seven others wounded, as the Israelis opened fire on crowds of stone-throwing youths.
At the same time, medics said a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who was injured in an Israeli raid on Jabalya refugee camp early last month, died from his wounds.
The latest deaths brought to 3,141 the number of people killed since the September 2000 of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, including 2,364 Palestinians and 719 Israelis.
Hamas swore bitter revenge for the attack, with Hamas' political leaders Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi saying the group would act "quickly" to avenge the deaths of the six victims.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat also heaped condemnation on the attack, saying Israel was "using the war in Iraq to escalate its aggression against the Palestinian people".
The army also arrested 10 wanted Palestinians in overnight operations in the West Bank, two of whom were from the radical Islamic Jihad group, two from Fatah (news - web sites), and one from Hamas.
As the violence flared, German Foreign Minister Joshka Fischer continued his efforts to push forward the internationally-drafted peace roadmap, meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) before scheduled talks with his moderate new prime minister Mahmud Abbas.
He had earlier met with Israeli leaders, stressing the need to support the dovish new Palestinian premier as the latter struggled to form a government, mainly owing to disagreements with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"The roadmap is an excellent proposal. The reforms in Palestinian areas must be supported," Fisher said.
Abbas was meanwhile to ask for another two weeks in which to form his government, a senior Palestinian source said.
He was originally given until Thursday to announce his new government lineup, but he will now request that the Palestinian Legislative Council give him another two weeks.
The roadmap is a blueprint for peace drafted by the United States, Russia, Europe and the United Nations (news - web sites) which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel by 2005.
Fischer's visit to Arafat was the diplomatically-isolated Palestinian leader's first meeting with a high-ranking foreign official in almost a year.
