RAMALLAH, West Bank (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Israel launched its second missile attack in days on Palestinian activists on Saturday, hitting a convoy carrying a leader in Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, Palestinian officials and witnesses said. (Read photo caption below)Senior West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi said missiles were fired at two cars near his office in the town of Al-Bireh outside Ramallah but did not hit his vehicle.
``This is a failed assassination attempt and this is a cowardly act by (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon, and a crime. The criminal occupiers will pay for this new crime,'' Barghouthi said.
Barghouthi, an influential figure in the 10-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, said one of the missiles hit a car carrying a bodyguard and ``another man wanted by the (Israeli) occupation authorities.''
The Israeli army declined to comment officially but a military source denied Barghouthi was the intended target.
An Israeli security source said the target had been the car carrying Mohanad Abu Halaweh, a member of Arafat's Force-17 presidential guard, who the source said was behind a spate of shooting ambushes in which at least six Israelis were killed.
Halaweh jumped out of the car and ran for cover when a first missile overshot the vehicle. The second missile scored a direct hit, turning the car into a mound of charred and twisted metal. Halaweh suffered burns to the face and hands.
The missiles were fired at the convoy from a nearby internationally illegal Jewish settlement which overlooks Al-Bireh, the security source said.
On the outskirts of Jerusalem, Palestinian Resistance men fired at Israeli apartment buildings in the Gilo Jewish settlement, an area Israel regards as a neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The exchange between the Resistance men and Israeli occupation soldiers who returned heavy fire lasted for several hours and echoed through the streets of Jerusalem.
ISRAELI TRACK AND KILL POLICY UNDER FIRE
On Tuesday, Israel killed eight people, including two senior figures in the Resistance Islamic group Hamas and two children, in a helicopter missile strike in the West Bank city of Nablus.
The Nablus attack raised tensions and prompted calls for revenge from Palestinians, who accuse Israel's military of assassinating more than 60 activists.
Israel describes its policy of tracking and killing Palestinian militants, which has drawn widespread international criticism, as ``active self-defense'' .
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Al-Bireh attack was a continuation of Sharon's ``policy of assassinating Palestinian leaders.''``This is a declaration of a comprehensive war by Sharon and we have received his message loud and clear,'' Abed Rabbo said.
Barghouthi told Reuters: ``There can be no dialogue with this government. This is a gang and not a government.''
The Palestinian Authority issued a statement condemning the missile attack and renewing its call for international observers to be deployed in the West Bank and Gaza.
GAZA RAID
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli tanks and bulldozers have meanwhile destroyed a Palestinian police building in a brief incursion into Palestinian-ruled territory near the Kfar Darom Jewish settlement in central Gaza early on Saturday.
In the predominantly Palestinian West Bank city of Hebron, Al-Khalil Israeli occupation soldiers and Palestinian Resistance men exchanged fire on Saturday afternoon after fighting a fierce gun battle earlier in the day.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Palestinians gather around a destroyed car after it was hit in an Israeli attack in the West Bank city of Ramallah August 4,2001. Israel launched at least two missiles at a convoy of cars carrying senior Fatah member Marwan Bargouthi, but did not hit his vehicle. (Osama Silwadi/Reuters)