Palestinians inspect a crater left by an Israeli missile when Massud Ayyad, a member of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's personal guard, was killed by Israeli fire. From Hope to Hostility Follow the growing Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Post stories and photos. A senior Palestinian security official was assassinated today when Israeli helicopter gunships fired a barrage of anti-tank missiles at his car in the Gaza Strip. It was the sharpest violence between Israeli forces and Palestinians in weeks. They said Ayyad had carried out five attacks in the past six weeks, including launching two mortar shells at a Jewish settlement in Gaza, and was planning further attacks and kidnappings.
Escalation is their strategic goal.
Islamic Jihad and Hamas have clear orders from Tehran to escalate. Palestinian officials called Ayyad's assassination a war crime and an example of state-sponsored terror, and warned that his death would inspire a fresh wave of attacks against Israeli targets. Western diplomats and local analysts also warned that the killing of Ayyad could feed a dangerous new cycle of violence set in motion with the election of Ariel Sharon as Israel's prime minister last week. Although Sharon has not yet taken power, and will not until he can form a government, many Palestinians consider him a war criminal and have insisted that the proper response to his election is to intensify their armed attacks. Israel has targeted at least a dozen Palestinians for assassination in the course of the violence that has convulsed the West Bank and Gaza in the past three months.