Senior leader of Hamas political wing, Dr. Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, 58, was injured in an Israel helicopter attack on his car in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, a Hamas source said. At least three Palestinian civilians were killed.
Doctors and Hamas sources said Rantissi, who helped found Hamas in the late 1980s, was in "good" condition but a woman and an 8-year-old girl, who were passing by, were killed. Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, said Rantissi was among 25 people wounded in the attack. Reports said Rantissi was injured in the right leg, and was undergoing surgery at Shifa Hospital. Rantissi's bodyguards and his son were also injured, said Dr. Hassanain.
Witnesses said one of the wounded was a baby girl. They said Israeli helicopter gunships fired at least six rockets toward the car. Rantissi apparently spotted the helicopters before the rockets were fired and jumped out of the vehicle in time.
"We will continue with our holy war and resistance until every last criminal Zionist is evicted from this land," Rantissi told the Qatar-based TV station Al Jazeera from his hospital bed.
The founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, vowed Israeli civilians will be targeted. "Israel is targeting Palestinian civilians, so Israeli civilians should be targeted. From now on, all Israeli people are targets," Yassin told reporters after visiting Rantissi in hospital. "We got Israel's message. They should now expect the answer."
In an earlier reaction, Hamas said that the attack was an Israeli "declaration of war," and that all cease-fire talks with the Palestinian Authority are off. "Israel should expect that this crime...will not pass without severe punishment," Mahmoud al-Zahar told al-Jazeera satellite television after
the assassination attempt.
“The attack sends clear the message that all plans for peace are false, and what is needed now is how to face the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories,” said Hamas Politburo member Mohamed Nazal. It should be noted that Rantissi was leaving a meeting of the Higher Follow up Committee of the National and Islamic Factions, in which he was discussing Hamas' possibility to go back to the dialogue with the Palestinian Authority.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas angrily denounced the rocket strike as "a terrorist attack," which aims to sabotage Palestinian efforts to push the peace process back on track.
Earlier, the Palestinian Authority condemned the assassination attempt, which PA information minister Nabil Amr called an intentional derailing of the Aqaba process. "This attack is directed against the efforts of the Palestinian government to start Palestinian dialogue with Hamas and other factions in order to have a Palestinian unanimous position concerning the cease-fire and the truce," said PA minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo.
US President Bush criticized Israel on Tuesday for the attack, warning that such a strike "does not contribute to the security of Israel." "The president is deeply troubled by the strike of helicopter gunships that reportedly killed at least two persons and wounded 20 others," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "The president is concerned that this strike will undermine efforts by Palestinian authorities to bring an end to terrorist attacks, and it does not contribute to the security of Israel."
Fleischer added: "Israel has to act on that right (to defend itself) in a manner that is consistent with larger objectives, and in this case the president views this as deeply troubling."
Arab League chief, Amr Moussa said: "Israel is trying to foil any move towards achieving peace." "This attack is not only a violation of the road map but a threat to the peace process," he told reporters in Bahrain.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli occupation forces shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian as he neared the southern Gaza Strip settlement of Morag. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
