Three militants killed in Israel’s airstrike on Gaza

‘‘The Israeli Air Force attacked a vehicle transporting senior Hamas terrorists who were recently involved in numerous terrorist attacks on Israeli targets and were planning additional attacks,’’ the Army said in a statement.

Persistent violence has sidelined a US-backed ‘‘road map’’ peace plan. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans unilateral moves to evacuate most settlements in Gaza and retrench behind new ‘‘security lines’’ in what he calls a bid to defuse conflict.

Witnesses said at least two missiles shredded the car, which was hit on a dirt road in a desert tract. Palestinian bystanders threw fistfuls of sand into the vehicle to douse the blaze.

Medics pulled out three charred bodies, one headless. People were forced back as burning oil ignited smaller explosions.

Palestinian security sources said the three dead were operatives of Hamas, at the forefront of a suicide bombing campaign against Israelis.

Israel has killed a number of Muslim militants in lightning air strikes that it describes as self-defence but which Palestinians condemn as state-sponsored assassination.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie condemned the attack. ‘‘The Israeli government’s aim is to kill any attempt to restore quiet and revive the peace process,’’ he said.

Israel blames the Palestinian leadership’s failure to rein in militants . In Gaza, 1.3 million Palestinians are squeezed into teeming urban slums alongside 7,800 Jews in spacious fortified enclaves.

Sharon wants to uproot most of the 21 exposed settlements and several more in the West Bank under his ‘‘disengagement’’ plan, which has inflamed Palestinians. —(Reuters)