RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli helicopter gunships launched a rocket attack against a top official of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, in the West Bank town of Ramallah yesterday, stepping up its policy of assassinating Palestinian leaders.
Israeli forces fired missiles at the three-car convoy of Marwan Barghuti, Fatah secretary-general in the West Bank, as he was leaving his offices in Ramallah, Barghuti and witnesses told AFP.
When asked if he thought he had been targeted by the Israelis, he replied: “Yes, of course”.
Barghuti, 42, escaped the assassination attempt unharmed and vowed to escalate the Palestinian uprising in response to the new crime.
Another Fatah activist also wanted by the Israelis, Mohanad Abu Halawa, was in the lead car when the missiles were fired, Barghuti said.
The first rocket missed the vehicle, and Abu Halawa escaped with burns before a second missile destroyed it. The other cars sped off and escaped.
Two people, thought to be residents of the apartment block where the Fatah office is located, were said to be slightly injured in the blast. Barghuti warned the attack would not go unanswered.
“This is a new crime after the massacre at Nablus. It is clear this is all-out war. They are trying to silence the fires of the intifada. But our response will be to escalate the resistance,” Barghuti told AFP just after the attack. Witnesses told AFP the attack was launched by helicopter gunships.
However, other people on the scene said it was possible the attack was by tanks positioned at the Jewish settlement in Al-Bireh, on the edge of Ramallah. Israeli army radio said later the rocket attack was not aimed at Barghuti but at Halawa.
A rash of heavy clashes erupted across the Palestinian territories late yesterday in the wake of the Israeli rocket attack. A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was seriously injured in Israeli tank fire to the east of Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said.
And in the flash point West Bank town of Hebron, Israeli forces opened fire with tanks and machineguns. Palestinian security officials reported that eight Israeli tanks and four bulldozers entered Palestinian territory near the Kfar Darom Jewish settlement in central Gaza and destroyed a two-story police building. In Hebron, Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen exchanged heavy fire in the early hours yesterday. In another development, Israeli forces closed a key bridge linking the West Bank to Jordan to incoming traffic and severely restricted Palestinian movement into the nearby city of Jericho, Palestinian security officials said.
Meanwhile, a demonstration against the military escalation by the Israeli government in the Palestinian territories drew several thousand people late Saturday in Tel Aviv, Israeli public television reported.
