Posted on 08/21/2003 4:34:35 AM PDT by veronica
A senior Hamas official and at least two other Palestinains were killed Thursday afternoon when Israel Air Force helicopters fired five missiles at a car in a crowded Gaza City neighborhood.
Security sources said that Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab was the target of the strike.
The other two Palestinians killed were reported to have been Shanab's bodyguards.
Abu Shanab's gold-colored station wagon was driving in the Rimal neighborhood near the United Nations headquarters in Gaza City and had slowed down to avoid a large stone in the road when a first missile struck the front of the vehicle.
The missile strike came two days after a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up on a Jerusalem bus, killing 20 people, including five Americans.
There was no immediate comment by IDF.
Paramedics pulled three bodies out of the burning vehicle, witnesses said.
Palestinian officials condemned the strike calling it "irresponsible on the side of Israel which will complicate matters."
Call them irresponsible
Call them unreliable
Throw in unconscionable too
Do their precision strikes offend you?
Well, they're just too clever
For the likes of you
Call them unpredictable
Call them unforgivable
Tough! Evil they're inclined to pursue
Yes, they're irresponsible
And they're unsociable
But it's undeniably true
They're irresponsibly gonna get you!
Leni
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