Israeli warplanes hit Hamas offices

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli aircraft fired missiles at the Palestinian prime minister’s office early today, just hours after a Palestinian official said the soldier whose abduction sent Israeli troops into the Gaza Strip is alive and in stable condition.

A Hamas militant was killed in another Israeli air strike.

Witnesses said two missiles hit the Gaza City office of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas early today, leaving one bystander slightly injured and setting the empty building on fire.

Inspecting his burning office, Mr. Haniyeh called the Israeli attack senseless.

“They have targeted a symbol for the Palestinian people,” he said.

The Israeli military confirmed the attack and said it would “employ all means at its disposal … to secure the safe return” of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, who was abducted by Palestinian militants last Sunday.

The missiles struck at about 1:45 a.m., shortly after moderate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas warned that the coming hours would be “critical, sensitive and serious” for trying to calm the crisis.

In other air strikes after midnight, Israeli aircraft hit a school in Gaza City and Hamas facilities in northern Gaza, where a Hamas militant was killed and another wounded, Palestinian officials said.

The military said Hamas was “planning terror attacks against Israel.” The 34-year-old Hamas gunman was the second militant killed in the five-day-old Israeli operation to force the release of Cpl. Shalit.

Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants exchanged fire for several hours yesterday afternoon when Israeli tanks and bulldozers crossed into Gaza and began razing farmland east of Khan Younis.

Ziad Abu Aen, a Palestinian deputy minister and Hamas official, said yesterday that Cpl. Shalit was wounded but in stable condition. Another Hamas official, however, cast doubt on the credibility of the statement. Osama Muzami said only that the military wing of the Islamic militant group knows the soldier’s condition.

There had been no sign of Cpl. Shalit, since he was abducted during a militant raid on an Israeli army post just outside the Gaza Strip. Two soldiers and two of the attackers were killed in the incident.

Mr. Abu Aen said “mediators” told him Cpl. Shalit had received medical treatment for wounds he suffered in the raid and was in stable condition.

“He has three wounds,” Mr. Abu Aen said in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “I guess shrapnel wounds.”

The Hamas-affiliated militants holding Cpl. Shalit initially said they would trade information about him for all Palestinian women and underage prisoners in Israeli jails. The militants raised their demands yesterday, calling for an end to the Israeli offensive and the release of 1,000 other prisoners in Israel, including non-Palestinian Muslims and Arabs.

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