The wanted leader of a Palestinian militant group and two of his lieutenants survived an Israeli assassination bid on Thursday after an air strike targeted their vehicle in the southern Gaza Strip.
An unmanned plane fired a rocket at the white-coloured vehicle that was carrying three members of the militant Popular Resistance Committees, close the Sufa border crossing into Israel, witnesses said.
A spokesperson for the Popular Resistance Committees said the strike in the Rafah region targeted the radical group’s leader.
”The Israeli army tried to assassinate Jamal Abu Samhadana, the general commander of the Popular Resistance Committees. He is injured but not seriously,” spokesperson Abu Abir said, adding the drone fired one rocket.
The other two casualties also belonged to the group, an umbrella militant faction loosely linked to the dominant Palestinian Fatah faction, the spokesperson said. Their condition is also not thought to be life-threatening.
Abu Samhadana also survived an apparent assassination attempt on August 5 when an explosion went off in the path of his car.
The Israeli military confirmed the air strike, saying its target has been behind a number of attacks.
”During a security forces operation this morning in the southern Gaza Strip, the IAF [Israeli Air Force] struck the vehicle of a senior Popular Resistance Committees operative,” a statement said. ”The senior operative was responsible for numerous terrorist attacks.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged on Wednesday that Israel will ”maintain the calm” in the absence of attacks by Palestinian militants while ruling out a formal ceasefire agreement.
However, he said Israel will reserve the right to attack what he called ”ticking bombs”, referring to militants who are about to carry out imminent attacks.
The army spokesperson’s office would not confirm whether the occupants of the vehicle were regarded as ticking bombs.
Israel has assassinated a number of leading militants in Gaza this year, including two heads of the Islamist movement Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdelaziz Rantissi, who were both killed in air strikes.
Sharon is aware that offensive operations will undermine ongoing efforts by the new moderate Palestine Liberation Organisation chairperson Mahmud Abbas to persuade armed factions to halt their campaign of anti-Israeli attacks. — Sapa-AFP