Islamic Jihad leader unhurt in Gaza missile strike
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-15 11:21

Israeli missiles struck the Gaza office and home of Islamic Jihad's top leader early on Saturday in a failed bid to assassinate him, apparently in retaliation for the killing of 13 Israeli soldiers this week.

An explosion lights up the night sky as an Israeli helicopter rocket hits the Islamic Jihad's office in Gaza city, Saturday May 15, 2004. Israeli helicopters attacked two Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza City early Saturday, wounding at least ten people, Palestinian witnesses said. [AP]

Witnesses said helicopter gunships fired eight missiles at the targets, wounding at least eight Palestinians, but officials of the militant group said Mohammed al-Hindi had safely fled the area.

The attempt on al-Hindi's life followed Israel's assassinations of the two senior Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks.

The missile barrage came hours after two Israeli soldiers were killed by Hamas militants in a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip in the latest in a series of ambushes that has dealt the Middle East's mightiest army its worst blow in two years.

Helicopters first fired three missiles into an Islamic studies center housing al-Hindi's office and then targeted his home in another part of the densely populated city with five missiles, witnesses said.

Israeli missiles struck the Gaza office and home of Islamic Jihad's top leader early on May 15, 2004 in a failed bid to assassinate him, apparently in retaliation for the killing of 13 Israeli soldiers this week. [Reuters]

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Islamic groups sworn to Israel's destruction, are the driving force behind a campaign of suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis during three and a half years of conflict.

Hamas claimed responsibility for killing six soldiers in a troop carrier on Tuesday during a raid in Gaza City, and Islamic Jihad said it was behind a similar bombing that killed five servicemen on Wednesday.

Polls showed deepening support in Israel for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout plan, now stalled by hard-liners in his own rightist party, as this week's losses reminded Israelis of the high cost of the hard-to-defend Gaza settlements.

The Gaza violence has also raised concern among Israeli military planners that Palestinians have adopted the tactics of Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas that eventually ended Israel's occupation of south Lebanon in 2000.

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