A rchive Date
[ 11-06-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Palestine ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/03/29/54072-ap.html
Israel targets Hamas leader
By IBRAHIM BARZAK
Tue, June 10, 2003
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a car carrying a senior Hamas political leader Tuesday, wounding him and killing his bodyguard and a bystander and putting into jeopardy the U.S.-backed road map to Mideast peace.
Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the most high-profile political leader of the Islamic militant group to be targeted by Israel in 32 months of fighting, said he jumped out of his car when he heard the choppers overhead. Rantisi was injured and underwent surgery. Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas called the helicopter strike a "criminal and terrorist" attack.
It came just four days after Hamas broke off talks with him on halting attacks against Israel. However, some Hamas leaders said before Tuesday's strike they were considering resuming truce talks.
After the helicopter attack Hamas threatened revenge "that will be like an earthquake."
"We will continue with our holy war and resistance until every last criminal Zionist is evicted from this land," Rantisi told the Arab TV satellite station Al-Jazeera from his hospital bed.
Abbas accused Israel of trying to destroy the "road map" plan to get out of its commitments. The prescription for Mideast peace and Palestinian statehood by 2005 was launched last week by President George W. Bush, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a summit in Jordan.
Israel sent mixed messages with its actions Tuesday. On the one hand, Israeli troops dismantled 10 tiny, uninhabited settlement outposts in the West Bank overnight, in line with the first requirements of the peace plan.
However, the missile strike threatened to unleash more attacks on Israelis, just as Egypt was trying to persuade Hamas to resume truce talks with Abbas.
Israel has accused Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat of trying to undercut Abbas in trying to negotiate a truce. Israel Radio on Tuesday quoted Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz as saying Israel may soon expel Arafat, a step that, according to Israeli reports, has been blocked by the United States until now. Mofaz spoke at a closed-door session of parliament's defence and foreign affairs committee.
The attack on Rantisi further weakened Abbas, who has been criticized at home for pledging to end the "armed intefadeh (uprising)" while getting little in return from Israel. Abbas said Tuesday he asked the United States to intervene and said he would continue trying to resume talks with Hamas.
The road map says Israel must refrain from actions that undermine trust, but does not specifically rule out assassinations, which Israel describes as "targeted killings."
Israel indicated after its acceptance of the plan last month that it would reserve the practice of targeted killings to "ticking bomb" scenarios, as a last means of preventing attacks on Israelis.
Rantisi is a political leader of Hamas and a frequent spokesman for the group, but he has been careful to deny all knowledge of the actions of the military wing.
The attack on Rantisi began before noon Tuesday, when three Israeli Apache helicopter gunships appeared over the skies of Gaza City. In quick succession, they fired seven missiles toward Rantisi's jeep as it drove in a crowded thoroughfare near a 16-storey apartment building.
"I opened the door and jumped out immediately," Rantisi said.
The vehicle burst into flames and was reduced to a scorched pile of metal.
A witness, bread vendor Salim Abdullah, 23, said the first missile missed Rantisi's car.
"The doctor (Rantisi) ran from the car. One of the helicopters started firing machine-guns at him while he was running. At the time, I was hiding next to a wall. I saw the doctor bleeding," said Abdullah, who also was injured.
A Rantisi bodyguard and a 44-year-old woman were killed, said Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, director of Shifa Hospital.
Twenty-seven people were hurt, including Rantisi's son, Ahmed, and three other bodyguards. The others were bystanders, including three who were in critical condition, Hassanain said.
Rantisi was injured in the leg and underwent an operation.
"Rantisi is suffering from torn arteries," said another Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, a surgeon who performed the operation. "He's in stable condition."
Thousands of Hamas supporters crowded the courtyard outside Shifa Hospital after the missile strike, chanting slogans against Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen.
"Abu Mazen, we want resistance!" the crowd shouted. "We will not give up. We will not co-operate with the Zionists."
Dozens of Hamas gunmen fired their assault rifles in the air.
Zahar said there would be quick retaliation, adding that "the Hamas response will be like an earthquake."
When asked whether this would include targeting Israeli politicians, Zahar said: "An eye for an eye . . . a politician for a politician."
Zahar also said that Palestinians "must throw the road map into the garbage and commit to the map of holy war."
Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in bombings and shootings since the latest revolt against Israeli occupation began 32 months ago. On Sunday, Hamas, in a joint operation with two other militias, killed four Israeli soldiers in a shooting attack at an army outpost in Gaza. The three Palestinians attackers also died in the clash.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, a Palestinian cabinet minister, accused Israel is trying to make it impossible for Abbas to negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas.
"This is an attack against the road map; this is an attack against the efforts of George Bush," Abed Rabbo said.
Sharon only reluctantly accepted the three-stage plan and has been evasive about full compliance with the first step - the dismantling of dozens of settlement outposts established in the West Bank since he took office March 2001.
Overnight, troops pulled down 10 uninhabited outposts, and were to remove five more, including four populated ones, later in the day. Settler leaders said they would try to prevent the removal of outposts, but not use violence against soldiers.
Settler rabbis said in a joint statement Tuesday that Sharon's decision to dismantle outposts was a "crime" and violated Jewish values.
Egypt has been intensifying pressure on Palestinian militias to halt shooting and bombing attacks on Israelis.
The Egyptian intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, who presided over truce talks with Palestinian militias earlier this year, is scheduled to meet with Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said. It was not clear whether Suleiman would still make the trip.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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