GAZA - Palestinians accused the United States on Friday of granting Israel a license to kill by vetoing U.N. condemnation of its assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Israeli forces killed two Hamas frogmen who came ashore overnight near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, after the Islamic militant group said it would launch "earthquake-like" attacks to avenge Yassin.

A car exploded near the West Bank city of Nablus, killing a militant who was apparently rigging it as a bomb. The 22-year-old Palestinian, from an armed faction of President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, was cut in half by the blast.

At the United Nations, the United States late on Thursday vetoed a Security Council resolution by Arab nations to censure Israel for assassinating Hamas's wheelchair-bound founder in a missile strike outside a Gaza mosque on Monday.

Washington, alone among major powers in not condemning Monday's assassination as an extrajudicial killing, rejected the resolution because it did not also denounce Hamas for suicide bombings in Israel. The vote was 11 in favor, three abstentions, and the United States veto that killed the measure.

"Israel's action has escalated tensions in Gaza and the region, and could set back our effort to resume progress toward peace," U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said in a statement.

But he added: "This Security Council does nothing to contribute to a peaceful settlement when it condemns one party's actions and turns a blind eye to everything else occurring in the region."

Palestinians denounced the U.S. action, and 10,000 people demonstrated in the West Bank against Yassin's killing.

"I'm afraid this U.S. veto will be taken by Israel as encouragement to continue on the path of violence and escalation, assassinations and reoccupation" of Palestinian territory, cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told Reuters.

Calling the United States the "chairman of the axis of evil in the world," Hamas political leader Mohammad Ghazal said the veto was "Israel's green light to carry out assaults and crimes."

An Israeli government official in Jerusalem welcomed the U.S. veto but expressed disappointment that Washington had been left no other option. "We are troubled by this cynical attempt to condemn those who are fighting terrorism without denouncing the terrorists themselves," he said.

TEHRAN MARCH

In Tehran, 5,000 people marched in protest against Yassin's killing, chanting "Death to Israel, death to America."

Worshippers at Friday prayers in the Gaza mosque where Yassin had prayed minutes before his assassination wept and demanded revenge as they looked upon the empty spot where the paralyzed 67-year-old cleric used to sit in his wheelchair.

In the Security Council, Britain, Germany and Romania abstained after Algeria, negotiating for Arab nations, rejected an amendment they wanted that would have condemned "atrocities" against Israelis.

The Algerian draft condemned "the most recent extrajudicial execution committed by Israel" and "all attacks against any civilians as well as all acts of violence and destruction."

The measure was backed by China, Russia, Algeria, Pakistan, Angola, Benin, Brazil, Chile, France, Spain and the Philippines.

Israel is vowing to kill more militants it sees as the masterminds behind suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis during a nearly 3-1/2 year Palestinian uprising.

Hamas, bent on Israel's destruction, has threatened to target Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other top officials.

Hamas said two of its fighters were the frogmen who mounted a "unique naval operation" near the Tel Katifa settlement and "ascended to heaven as martyrs" after battling Israeli troops.

A Hamas videotape showed the two 18-year-olds in wetsuits, diving masks pushed back and scuba tanks strapped on, vowing "revenge against the Jews" before setting out. The tape also showed a training simulation filled with gunfire and explosions.

Meshaal, speaking from Damascus in a telephone hookup piped through loudspeakers, told a crowd of 5,000 Hamas supporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah: "We will keep... sacrificing our dearest until the occupation leaves our land."

Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Atef al-Saad in Nablus, Wafa Amr and Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, Opheera McDoom in Cairo, Evelyn Leopold and Grant McCool at United Nations

© Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd

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