Hamas Militants Try To Elude Israeli Raids

Hamas's armed wing cautioned its members on Monday to stop using cellular telephones and vehicles to avoid being tracked.

Hamas's armed wing cautioned its members on Monday to stop using cellular telephones and vehicles to avoid being tracked and targeted in Israel's escalating aerial attacks.

"Do not use the Jawwal phones at all," a Hamas spokesman, referring to a Palestinian cellular network, said in a radio message on an open channel used by Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip.

"Do not get in groups. Do not use any kind of transportation at all because the planes of the Zionist enemy are in skies all the time," he said.

Israel's security cabinet decided on Sunday to escalate military action in response to rocket attacks from Gaza. Hours after the decision, an Israeli air strike on the home of a Hamas politician killed eight people, but left him uninjured.

A senior Israeli cabinet minister said all the group's members involved in cross-border rocket fire could be targeted, and four members of Islamic Jihad were killed in an Israeli air strike on their car in the northern Gaza Strip,

Dozens of militants have been killed in attacks from the air since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000. Palestinian radio stations are quick to broadcast warnings when Israeli aircraft appear overhead.

Israeli pilotless aircraft fly over Gaza constantly and are widely believed by Palestinians to carry sensitive electronic monitoring equipment that can use a militant's cellular telephone signal to pinpoint his location.

Palestinian militants and security sources say the drones are armed and have carried out numerous missile attacks in Gaza. A Palestinian security expert said Israel also uses informers to gather information about militants' whereabouts in Gaza.

In another attack on Monday, a Hamas militant was wounded in an Israeli air attack on a Gaza City street. Apparently following orders to stay out of cars, he was riding a bicycle when the missile struck.