[Shadow_Group] (Retuers) Militant Chief Wounded in Gaza

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51367-2004Dec9.html
 
Militant Chief Wounded in Gaza 
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
Retuers
Thursday, December 9, 2004; 10:37 AM 

GAZA, Dec 9 - A militant leader survived an Israeli missile strike on his car in Gaza on Thursday in Israel's first assassination attempt in the Palestinian territories since Yasser Arafat died in a Paris hospital. 

Jamal Abu Samhadana, head of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an umbrella organisation of militant factions, was slightly wounded along with two of his aides. His group vowed revenge with a "painful and earthquake-like" response. 

"The senior operative (targeted in the strike) was responsible for numerous terrorist attacks," the army said. 

A resurgent cycle of violence in occupied Gaza threatened to complicate efforts to instil calm for a Jan. 9 presidential selection for a successor to Arafat. 

Israel had promised to restrain its military operations in the West Bank and Gaza as long as calm prevailed during the run-up to the Palestinian election. 

But Sharon, who had reserved the right to strike at "ticking bombs," can ill afford to look soft on the Palestinians as he tries to win over hardliners in his own party for a planned Gaza withdrawal they have condemned as a "reward for terror." 

His rightist Likud's central committee was voting on Thursday on whether to let him negotiate a unity coalition with centre-left Labour that would avoid early elections and pave the way for the evacuation of Gaza settlements next year. 

Thursday's strike was Israel's first targeting a top-level militant chief since Arafat's death on Nov. 11. 

Palestinian cabinet member Saeb Erekat said the "continuation of assassination attempts" undermines efforts to revive peace talks. 

It came amid efforts by moderate former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, the leading presidential candidate, to coax militants into halting suicide bombings and other attacks. 

ISRAELI TANKS DESTROYED 

The PRC has staged numerous attacks on Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers during a four-year-old Palestinian uprising, including bombings that destroyed three Israeli combat tanks, killing seven crewmen. 

In Thursday's air strike, the militants jumped from their car seconds before the missile launched from an unmanned drone aircraft overhead destroyed the vehicle. 

"God willing, we will always be in the trench of resistance," said Samhadana, his head bandaged as he lay on a hospital stretcher. 

The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the blast, which took place between the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah, an area of frequent Israeli-Palestinian fighting. 

It was the second time in four months that Samhadana, 40, had survived an Israeli attempt to kill him. He escaped a missile strike on his car in August. 

The PRC, along with the militant Islamic Jihad group and the Abu Rish Brigades, claimed responsibility for a raid that killed three Israeli soldiers at an army post in a Jewish settlement in Gaza in September. 

Palestinian security sources had blamed the PRC for a bombing last year that killed three U.S. security men in a diplomatic convoy passing through Gaza. It had denied involvement. 

Four members of the group were detained as suspects but were later acquitted by a Palestinian court. Three escaped prison earlier this year after Arafat froze the court's ruling. 






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