Two Hamas terrorists killed in IAF helicopter strike.

Hospital officials identified the dead as Farid Mayet, 40, and Abdullah Akel, 37. Hamas sources said both were members of the Hamas military wing.

“I was riding my bicycle toward my shop when I heard the sound of F-16s circling over my head,” said an eyewitness, Balal, who declined to give his last name. “Suddenly I saw the car coming from the side of the street, and a missile came and hit the car from the front, followed by another two.”

He said he saw a passenger hit by a fourth missile and killed after he jumped from the Peugeot van. The other man in the car was “completely burned,” he said. He died later, hospital officials said. Two male bystanders, ages 40 and 45, were wounded by shrapnel, hospital officials said.

Akel is known to be a central figure in Hamas’ military wing in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has vowed to avenge the deaths.

Firefighters and rescue workers rushed to the scene and evacuated wounded from the vehicle that was travelling on a busy road between the Nusseirat and Bureij refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip.

Flames quickly engulfed the car and angry crowds gathered, yelling together, “God is great.”

UPDATE: The Ha’aretz report on this strike against Hamas contains a very revealing piece of information; the PA claims to be trying to arrest the terrorists firing Qassam rockets into Israel, and they’re relating tales of car chases and shootouts. But maybe the Palestinian police should just take a look out their office window:

The events followed an earlier push into Gaza late Thursday, shortly after one of the Qassam rockets fired by Palestinians struck near the coastal city of Ashkelon, the deepest hit yet into Israel. …

The military said that the force found the abandoned launcher that was used to fire Thursday’s rocket just 15 meters away from a Palestinian police post.

(Hat tip: BC.)