by Adel Zaanoun
GAZA CITY, Sept 7 (AFP) - Hamas vowed to exact bloody revenge after an Israeli air strike killed 14 of its fighters on Tuesday as they held a military training session in the Islamist movement's Gaza stronghold.
The early morning raid, carried out by combat aircraft, was Israel's first major response to a double Hamas suicide bombing in the southern city of Beersheva last week which slew 16 Israelis, as well as the two bombers.
The militants, all members of Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, were training at a football ground in eastern Gaza not far from the border with Israel, Hamas sources said.
As Hamas vowed to exact revenge, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman said that the movement's Syrian-based leadership was also on the country's list of targets.
The dead and wounded, most of them wearing combat uniforms, were taken to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital where hundreds of Hamas militants, some of them armed and masked, gathered as the news of the attack spread.
The victims arrived at hospital in cars and ambulances. Some bodies had been blown apart and blood spurted from gaping wounds.
The Ezzedin Al-Qassam Brigades vowed its response would be comparable to the attack in Beersheva.
"Our response to this crime will come. Our double strike in Beersheva is an example of the kind of blow which we can inflict on the Zionists," it said in a statement.
Gaza City storeowners closed their shops for the day in a show of respect for the 14 militants while loudspeakers from mosques called on the population to pray for the dead. Schools and universities also closed.
As the coffins were carried from the hospital to the centre of Gaza, fellow Hamas fighters unleashed volleys of gunfire into the air.
Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat said Israel's strike was intended to sabotage diplomatic efforts to kickstart the troubled peace process.
"We firmly condemn this new Israeli crime against our people which has cost the lives of 14 martyrs," Erakat told AFP.
The strike took place "just hours after the visit of an Egyptian delegation aimed at reviving the peace process and instituting a new mutual ceasefire."
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and intelligence services chief Omar Suleiman were both in Ramallah for talks on Monday, partly focused on efforts to persuade radical factions such as Hamas to halt their campaign of anti-Israeli attacks.
But Sharon's spokesman said that its campaign against Hamas would also be extended to a pursuit of the movement's Syrian-based leadership as well as its foot soldiers.
"We will strike Hamas everywhere -- in Gaza, in Damascus -- in order to avoid the assassinations of Israelis," Raanan Gissin told AFP.
Khaled Meshaal, the Damascus-based politburo chief who emerged as overall Hamas leader after Israel assassinated two other top figures earlier this year, is thought to be top of the list of targets.
Meshaal became undisputed leader after the assasssination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his successor Abdelaziz Rantissi in Israeli air strikes in Gaza City in the spring.
While targeted air strikes against the Hamas leadership have long been a feature of Israel's offensive against the organisation, Tuesday's raid is thought to be the first to kill such a large number of fighters in a single raid.
Israel is expected to pull all of its troops and the 8,000 Jewish settlers out of the Gaza Strip by the end of next year but is desperate to avoid seeing Hamas emerge as the leading force in the territory after the withdrawal.
"We have been acting systematically for a long time to hit the maximum number of Hamas members," Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told reporters. "We are interested in beating Hamas."
Gissin said the possibliity of an attack on the field used as a training ground for members of Hamas' military wing had been studied for some time.
"Before we hit this football pitch we watched for a few weeks in order to wait for the right moment to strike," he said.
"It was not a football field but a killing field where they were training in the use of explosives and attacks against Israelis."