JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Gun battles raged on Saturday night on Jerusalem's outskirts and across the West Bank after a botched Israel missile strike against Palestinian activists intensified the wrath of Palestinians revolting against Israeli occupation. (Read photo caption)
In some of the heaviest fighting in months, gunfire on the outskirts of Jerusalem echoed through the Holy City after Palestinian Resistance opened fire at Israeli apartment buildings, drawing a heavy Israeli response.Tracer bullets sliced through the night sky and the sounds of explosions and the distant rattle of Israeli machinegun fire reverberated through central Jerusalem.
The ground occasionally shook as a tank shell landed in a Palestinian area nearby.
As the Saturday night firefight raged at Gilo, a Jewish settlement that Israel regards as a neighborhood of Jerusalem, fighting spread to other parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
At least 510 Palestinians, 130 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since the Palestinian uprising began over 10 months ago.
Senior West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi, an influential figure in the uprising, said he was the target of the Israeli missile strike which hit two cars near his office outside Ramallah but not his vehicle.
``This is a failed assassination attempt,'' Barghouthi told Reuters. ``The criminal occupiers will pay for this new crime.''
PHOTO CAPTION:
An injured Palestinians who was shot in his leg by Israeli occupation soldiers as he was walking in the old city of Hebron, Al-Khalil during curfew August 4, 2001. Israel launched its second missile attack in days on Palestinian activists, firing at a convoy carrying, Marwan Barghouti, a leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, Palestinian officials and witnesses said. (Nayef Hashlamoun/Reuters)
- Aug 04 3:58 PM ET