Hamas leader Mohammed Hassan Reihan was shot and killed when IDF forces raided the West Bank village of Tel in a predawn search for militants. The IDF action, reportedly part of a new military strategy of "pinpoint prevention" -- short-term actions against suspected terrorists -- followed the fatal shooting attack Sunday night of Aharon Ussishkin (photo at left) in Kfar Hess, an Israeli cooperative village near the Green Line.

Israeli infantry and armored corps entered the village of Tel, southwest of Nablus, shortly after 3 a.m. The village, located in Area A under full Palestinian control, overlooks the site of last week's ambush in which Capt. (res.) Eyal Sela was shot dead. Tel is known as a stronghold of Hamas and according to Israel sources served as the base for several fatal shootings of settlers.

Tel council head Adnan al-Seifi told Reuters that the IDF had informed Palestinian officials there it planned to search and arrest militants. Soldiers surrounded the house of Reihan in the village where "we heard an explosion followed by extensive shooting by the army,'' Seifi said. He said he saw soldiers place Reihan's body in the street and cover it up. Palestinian medics were not allowed to approach the scene to remove the body, he added.

Reihan had been on Israel's wanted list for the 1998 killing of two residents of the nearby settlement of Yitzhar.

A spokesman for the IDF said that the army was "in the midst of an operation in Tel village to arrest people involved in terror activities." Some 30 Palestinians were arrested in the sweep, five of whom were described by the IDF as "seriously wanted," Israel Radio reported.

Military sources said that the IDF would remain in Tel only until it completed its mission. The raid was part of a new IDF policy of lightning raids into Palestinian-controlled territories to capture wanted terrorists, the sources said.

The new "pinpointed" strikes expand the use of IDF special forces and other infantry units, last less than a day, and have the main purpose of arresting terrorist suspects, Ha'aretz reported. According to the paper, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer is the main advocate of the new tactics. Ben-Eliezer believes that lengthy stays in Palestinian territories result in civilian casualties and international pressure on Israel.

On Thursday, IDF special forces and Border Police arrested three Palestinians suspected of terrorist shooting attacks in a raid on the village of Tzara near Nablus. On Friday night the IDF staged a raid into the village of Araka, west of Jenin, in response to the murder of Hadas Abutbul nearby. The army arrested 12 Palestinians and demolished the Araka home of Nader Hamdar, the Fatah gunman who killed three Israelis at the Afula bus station last month.

Search continues for Palestinian gunman
This morning Border Police and security forces continued to search for the Palestinian terrorist who shot and killed Aharon Ussishkin, 50, at the entrance of Moshav Kfar Hess last night. It appeared that the lone gunman had escaped, possibly to one of the nearby Arab villages, Taibe or Tira, and not necessarily to the West Bank.

At 19:30 p.m. Sunday night residents of the moshav spotted a suspicious person near Kfar Hess's gate. "I asked him what he was looking for and he said he wanted to get to Tira," said Erez Matzkin. "He had a gun in his hand and he spoke with an Arab accent."

"We called Ussishkin, security head of the moshav," said Yankele Davir, general secretary of Kfar Hess. Davir saw the terrorist approach Ussishkin's car, and shoot his gun into the vehicle. "We shouted, and then he shot at us," Davir said. A bullet hit Davir's son, Avi, and the terrorist managed to escape.

Kfar Hess resident Yuval Cohen heard the shots and raced to the scene of the shooting. "I met a young man who was wounded in the leg and asked what had happened. He said somebody had shot [Ussishkin]. I continued to the square and found Aharon sitting and bleeding in his car in the middle of the square. We tried to resuscitate him but, unfortunately, to no avail."

The terrorist reportedly left a note behind at the scene of the shooting, saying that it had been a "revenge attack." The terrorist reportedly wrote in the note that he was a "Shahid" - an Islamic martyr often denoting a suicide bomber.

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