Hamas vowed revenge and threatened to kill Israeli political leaders in reprisal for the attack on Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the most high-profile leader of the Islamic militant group to be targeted by Israel in 32 months of fighting.

Later today, Israeli tanks and helicopters fired toward a Palestinian residential area in the northern Gaza Strip, killing two 19-year-old men and a 16-year-old girl and wounding 30 people, doctors said. It was not immediately clear what prompted the Israeli fire. At about the same time, Palestinians fired six homemade rockets from northern Gaza, and four landed in Israel, including in the border town of Sderot, the Israeli military said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas told Palestinian Satellite TV the morning helicopter strike on Rantisi was a ``terrorist attack" and accused Israel of undermining the "road map" peace plan.

The attack is likely to weaken Abbas as he tries to bring Hamas back into negotiations on halting anti-Israeli attacks, four days after the group broke off talks, accusing Abbas of making too many concessions to Israel.

Egyptian mediators were pressing ahead with efforts to persuade Hamas to call a ceasefire. The Egyptian intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, was to arrive for talks with Hamas as scheduled Wednesday in the West Bank.

Hamas participated Sunday in a rare joint operation with Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades to kill four Israeli soldiers at an army outpost in Gaza. Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in bombings and shootings in the fighting.

Some Hamas leaders said before today's strike they were considering resuming truce talks. After the strike, however, Hamas threatened to target Israeli politicians in revenge.

"An eye for an eye ... a politician for a politician," said one Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar. Palestinians "must throw the road map into the garbage and commit to the map of holy war."

Speaking to reporters from his hospital bed in Gaza, Rantisi said the deaths caused by the strike "deserve to be retaliated for. But we must all remember that our war is not a war of retribution. We are resisting an occupation that has raped the land and sacrificed the holy sites."

"We will continue with our holy war and resistance until every last criminal Zionist is evicted from this land," Rantisi said.

Abbas said in a statement that attacks like the strike "obstruct and sabotage the political process." The "road map" for Mideast peace and Palestinian statehood by 2005 was launched last week by Bush, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a summit in Jordan.

Bush "is deeply troubled by the strike," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "The president is concerned that the strike will undermine efforts by Palestinian Authorities and others to bring an end to terrorist attacks, and does not contribute to the security of Israel."

Israeli security officials confirmed that Rantisi was the target of the strike.

Israel's Government Press Office called Rantisi an ``arch-terrorist" bent on wrecking the plan affirmed at the Jordan summit. Since the summit, "Rantisi has stepped up his murderous activities, both openly and covertly," the statement said.

Israel sent mixed messages with its actions Tuesday. On the one hand, Israeli troops dismantled 10 tiny, uninhabited settlement outposts in the West Bank overnight, in line with the first requirements of the peace plan.

Israel has accused Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat of trying to undercut Abbas in trying to negotiate a truce. Israel Radio on Tuesday quoted Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz as saying Israel may soon expel Arafat, a step that, according to Israeli reports, has been blocked by the United States.

The attack on Rantisi further weakened Abbas, who has been criticized at home for pledging to end the "armed intefadeh" while getting little in return from Israel.

The road map says Israel must refrain from actions that undermine trust, but does not specifically rule out the targeted killings of Palestinian militants.

Israel accepted the plan last month but reserved the practice of targeted killings to "ticking bomb" scenarios, as a last means of preventing attacks on Israelis.

Rantisi, a political leader of Hamas and its frequent spokesman, has been careful to deny all knowledge of the military wing's actions.

The attack on Rantisi, a pediatrician, began before noon Tuesday, when three Israeli Apache helicopter gunships appeared over the skies of Gaza City. In quick succession, they fired seven missiles toward Rantisi's Jeep Pajero as it drove in a crowded thoroughfare near a 16-storey apartment building.

"I opened the door and jumped out immediately," Rantisi said.

The vehicle burst into flames and was reduced to a scorched pile of metal.

A witness, bread vendor Salim Abdullah, 23, said the first missile missed Rantisi's car.

"The doctor (Rantisi) ran from the car. One of the helicopters started firing machine guns at him while he was running. At the time, I was hiding next to a wall. I saw the doctor bleeding," said Abdullah, who also was injured.

A Rantisi bodyguard and a 44-year-old woman were killed, said Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, director of Shifa Hospital.

Twenty-seven people. including Rantisi's son, Ahmed, and three bodyguards, were hurt. Three bystanders were in critical condition, Hassanain said.

Thousands of Hamas supporters crowded the hospital courtyard after the missile strike, chanting slogans against Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, as Hamas gunmen fired in the air.

"Abu Mazen, we want resistance!" the crowd shouted. "We will not give up! We will not co-operate with the Zionists!"

Sharon has only reluctantly accepted the three-stage road map, saying he would meet Israel's obligations. But he has been evasive about full compliance with the first step: the dismantling of dozens of settlement outposts established in the West Bank since he took office March 2001.

Israel was to remove five more outposts, including four populated ones, later Tuesday. Settler leaders said they would try to prevent those removals but would not use violence.