Investigators point to where Israeli missiles struck

He is believed to have been the main target of the attack which killed seven other Palestinians, including two children, in the West Bank town of Nablus.

Israel called the strike "a preventative measure" aimed at a group of senior Hamas activists they say are behind a wave of anti-Israeli attacks.

Israel said Mansour was part of the Hamas leadership responsible for attacks against Israeli including the 1 June suicide bombing of a Tel Aviv disco that killed 21 people.

Hamas has insisted that the 42-year-old Mansour had no military role in the organisation.

In and out of jail

Jamal Mansour, married and a father of four children rose to prominence as a student leader at the University of Al-Najah, near Nablus on the back of his radical Islamic beliefs.

In 1992, Israel deported Mansour along with more than 400 Palestinians from Hamas and its rival Islamic Jihad to Marj al-Zouhar in Southern Lebanon.

Upon his return, he was imprisoned several times by Israel - spending more than five years in Israeli jails in total.

Palestinian anger shows no signs of abating

Mansour also clashed with Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority over Hamas' violent opposition to the 1993 Oslo peace accords with Israel.

After the Oslo agreement, like many Hamas activists, Mansour spent at least two years in a Palestinian prison.

He was released shortly before the latest Palestinian intifada, or uprising, began in September.

Palestinians say that more than 40 activists have been killed as part of Israel's self-declared policy of eliminating prominent militants since then.

Prior to his death, Mansour had warned that Israel was going to "intensify its hits and use new tactics in order to make the largest number of Palestinian victims."