AL BIREH, West Bank (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Improved Palestinian Resistance security arrangements have saved the life of Muhammed Mansour, the Fatah leader in Ramallah, who had left his office moments before Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at an office of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction on Saturday, casting a pall over efforts to reach a cease-fire in nearly a year of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.And as if to compensate for their failure there, Israeli occupation soldiers shot dead a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in Gaza, hospital officials and witnesses said. 13-year-old Mohammed Abu Libda was shot dead in southern Gaza near the Egyptian border, hospital officials and witnesses said. They said the boy was shot in the stomach but further details of the shooting were not immediately available.
Palestinian witnesses said the helicopters fired three missiles at the office in the al-Bireh suburb of the West Bank city of Ramallah, not far from the internationally illegal Jewish settlement of Psagot. No casualties were reported.
Witnesses said the office, in a residential area, was evacuated several months ago when Israeli missile strikes became more commonplace during the Palestinian uprising. Windows of nearby homes were shattered by the explosions.
The Israeli occupation army made the now all too familiar claim that it carried out the raid to retaliate for several attacks in the West Bank recently, specifically a shooting on Thursday in which an Israeli occupation soldier was killed.
Palestinian Resistance men in Ramallah and Israeli occupation soldiers guarding Psagot have often exchanged fire since the uprising erupted in September after peace talks stalled.
The latest Israeli blunders again overshadowed efforts to arrange peace talks between Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
PALESTINIANS VOW REVENGE
Islamic Resistance men, blaming Israel for the death of a Palestinian, meanwhile, vowed at his funeral in southern Gaza on Saturday to avenge his death by attacking Israelis in Tel Aviv.
Izz el-Din Abu Issa, 24, was killed in a blast in a Resistance men's hideout in Gaza. Officials said he died when explosives went off prematurely, but some Resistance sources accused Israel of killing the young man, an activist in Arafat's Fatah faction.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A crowd of Palestinians gather to look at rocket holes in the walls of an office of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement after Israeli helicopters rocketed the building in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Saturday Sept. 8, 2001. The Palestinians accused Israel of trying to kill Muhammed Mansour, the Fatah leader in Ramallah, who had left the office moments before. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
- Sep 08 12:48 PM ET