Jerusalem ? Israel struck a Palestinian government complex in the West Bank with missiles twice Thursday in retaliation for an Islamic militant’s assault on a Jewish settlement that killed three Israelis. Palestinian militiamen said they would increasingly target settlements.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, meanwhile, addressed a prickly subject he has long evaded  who will succeed him in the key posts of Palestinian Authority president and PLO chief. But Arafat, 72, who has no plans to step down, sowed rather than dispelled confusion: suggesting two different confidants to head the authority and the PLO.

The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Hamra, an isolated Jewish settlement of 40 families in the West Bank’s Jordan Valley. The assault marked the first time in 16 months of fighting that Israeli civilians were killed in their home, further raising the level of the nation’s anxiety.

In the 30-minute assault, Hamas gunman Mohammed Ziad Khalili, 26, from Nablus, cut through the settlement fence, killed an Israeli soldier, then entered a house and took Miri Ohana, 50, and her 11-year-old daughter hostage. The gunman killed the girl and wounded Ohana before soldiers killed him with several shots to the head, said an army commander in the area, Brig. Gen. Udi Shani. Ohana died en route to a hospital.

In response, Israel launched two airstrikes against the main government and prison complex in Nablus. Early Thursday, F-16 warplanes struck the site, injuring 11 Palestinians; 20 hours later, helicopters fired two more missiles. Neither strike caused major damage.

After the first airstrike, Palestinian wardens released 25 Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners to get them out of harm’s way, while 103 suspected informers for Israel remained in custody.

In Jenin, dozens of gunmen stormed a makeshift prison in an apartment building and freed seven detainees, meeting no resistance from police.

Among those freed in Nablus were Mahmoud Tawalbeh and Ali Safouri, two Islamic Jihad leaders appearing on a list of 33 top militants the United States wants to see behind bars. Tawalbeh is suspected of having sent more than a dozen assailants into Israel in recent months.

In an interview published Thursday in the Egyptian magazine Al-Mussawar, Arafat indirectly suggested two men  Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qureia and PLO Secretary-General Mahmoud Abbas  as possible successors.

Arafat told the magazine that under the law, the Palestinian parliament speaker would be caretaker president of the Palestinian Authority for 60 days, until new elections are held. The PLO secretary-general becomes interim leader of that organization.

Arafat has been the PLO leader since the 1960s and in 1996 was elected Palestinian Authority president. No new elections are scheduled.