Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

OCCUPUED JERUSALEM, 8 February 2004 — A 12-year-old boy and the Islamic Jihad commander in the Gaza Strip were killed yesterday when an Israeli gunship fired a missile into a car, resuming the Jewish state’s policy of assassinating Palestinian fighters.

The attack on the vehicle carrying Aziz Al-Shami coincided with the start of a military trial in Gaza of Palestinians accused of killing three Americans.

Shami, 37, died of his injuries shortly after being admitted to the city’s main Al-Shifa hospital, Dr. Bakr Abu Safia said.

Tareq Al-Sussi, who was on his way home from school, was also killed in the blast, which left the car a mass of smoldering metal.

At least nine people, including two children aged two and 10, were wounded and taken to the hospital in ambulances which forced their way through a crowd at the scene.

Among the injured were two fighters traveling in Shami’s car.

The Israeli Army confirmed it had targeted the vehicle carrying Shami, who was the commander of Islamic Jihad’s “Jerusalem Brigades” armed wing and a brother-in-law and bodyguard of Islamic Jihad leader Abdallah Al-Shami.

Abdallah Al-Shami said the death “brought happiness into our hearts because Aziz has achieved” the martyrdom which he sought, but it made the group more determined to “launch powerful and painful strikes against the enemy.”

He called on Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorie to halt talks with Israel aimed at restarting peace negotiations and arranging a summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Qorie condemned the missile attack as an attempt to heighten tension in the region.

“This new crime will be avenged and all the armed Palestinian groups will continue their resistance,” Islamic Jihad leader in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Al-Hindi.

Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner said that Shami was targeted as a “ticking bomb” because he was plotting an attack at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.

Pazner expressed regret that the boy died in the airstrike.

Meanwhile, four Palestinians were charged with planting explosives that may have killed three Americans traveling in a diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip in October.

The four men, who appeared before a military court in Gaza City, are accused of planting roadside bombs on a main highway leading into the Gaza Strip from the Erez crossing point with Israel.

A military prosecutor said those bombs were intended to target Israeli tanks entering the Strip, but one of the explosives may have been to blame for the Oct. 15 blast that ripped apart a US diplomatic car, killing three American security guards.

US officials have been pressing the Palestinians to find those behind the attack. Recently they have warned the Palestinian Authority that some US aid programs could be scaled back or canceled if there is no progress in the probe.

On Wednesday, Jibril Rajoub, an aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said the Americans were using political and financial “blackmail” to push the Palestinians to find suspects in the bombing.

The four men charged were Naeem Deeb Abu Fool, 42, Basheer Abu Laban, 43, Mohammed Dosouki Asaliyye, 21, and Ahmed Abdel Fattah Safi, 23. All four are from Gaza’s Jebaliya refugee camp.

— Additional input from agencies