Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a storage building in Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters in Ramallah on Wednesday night, but he was unhurt in his office, Palestinian security officials said.
Arafat was meeting European Union envoy Miguel Moratinos in his office at the time of the bombing.
Palestinian officials said the missiles hit a food storage center in the Scientific Committee building, which is about 10 meters from Arafat's office in the headquarters where he has been largely confined by Israeli tanks for almost three months.
The attack was the latest in a series of Israeli airstrikes on Palestinian targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Wednesday. IAF helicopters hit a security headquarters building in the southern Gaza Strip, a PA police station in the West Bank village of Halhoul, just north of Hebron.
At least 11 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed during another day of intense Israeli raids on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israeli prime minister pledged to continue the “aggressive” military campaign against the Palestinian Authority.
Gaza Strip
Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine both claimed responsibility for the killing of an Israeli officer in fighting near the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis.
The second Israeli soldier was killed overnight and three other soldiers wounded when Palestinians attacked them with gunfire and grenades while they were on a patrol along the border with Egypt.
The home of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza City and a UN-run school for the blind were severely damaged in the Israeli air strikes. The blasts blew out windows and collapsed a back wall in Arafat's home.
Palestinian security sources said Israeli warplane fired a missile at the Palestinian national security headquarters in Gaza City, a building which houses the offices of Major-General Abdel Razek Majaideh, the Palestinian security chief in the Gaza Strip.
Hospital officials said a woman and two children outside were lightly hurt by flying debris.
For his part, Palestinian intelligence chief Amin al-Hindi said the strike took place seconds before Palestinian security chiefs arrived for a high-level meeting, raising the prospect Israel had been trying to kill them.
Palestinian security sources said that among Wednesday's victims in Gaza Strip, three were relatives of a Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine activist during an unsuccessful search for him in the village of Abassan in the southern Gaza Strip.
The military wing of the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas said one of its members, Abdel-Raham Ghazal, had died in a blast at his home in Gaza City and accused Israel of killing him. However, Israel denied these claims.
West Bank
Israeli troops stationed at a roadblock near the city of Qalqilya killed afternoon a Palestinian wearing an explosive vest. According to Israeli media reports, the Palestinian refused to respond to the soldiers’ calls to stop his movement towards their position.
Israel Radio said the Palestinian threw a firebomb at the roadblock. The troops began chasing him. The soldiers reportedly opened fire on the man and the bomb he was wearing then exploded. Troops later found a second explosive belt near the Palestinian's body.
In related news, Palestinians report Israeli undercover troops killed one Palestinian and wounded a second at a surprise roadblock near the village of Burin, west of Nablus.
The soldiers found a bag in the Palestinians' possession containing some 10 kilograms of explosive materiel.
Earlier, at least four Palestinian youths were wounded by Israeli troops, two of them critically, in a shooting incident at a school in the West Bank, Palestinian officials said Wednesday.
The mayor of Silat al-Baher, a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, alleged that Israeli soldiers had opened fire on a group of boys at the entrance to their school.
An Israeli spokeswoman said a military jeep had come under fire in Silat al-Baher and the soldiers had returned fire.
Hospital officials in the nearby Palestinian-ruled city of Tulkarem said two of the wounded - boys aged 11 and 17 - were in critical condition with bullet wounds, and that another two casualties were en route.
"The students were at the entrance to the school when an army bus full of soldiers stopped, and the soldiers opened fire. At least three students were wounded," said village mayor Ragher Abu Dayek.
Israel has also carried out air strikes on an office of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement in Dahariya, south of the West Bank city of Hebron. Witnesses said one missile had destroyed the office, which was empty at the time. The Palestinians routinely evacuate such targets in anticipation of Israeli strikes.
Israeli Infantry and armored forces have been operating since Tuesday night near Al-Yamun village, west of Jenin. According to Palestinian sources, one Palestinian was killed in this village.
Sharon
Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the Tarkomiya roadblock in the Hebron area Wednesday, accompanied by Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz, Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and other top officers.
Sharon said that the recent Israeli attacks were "part of the campaign being carried out." This campaign, he said, "will be an aggressive, continuous campaign from which [Israel] will not recoil, until the other side understands that it cannot achieve anything through terror, making it easier to return to negotiations”. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
