Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News

JERUSALEM, 16 May 2004 — Israel yesterday failed to assassinate the leader of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip as the United Nations accused the Jewish state of making more than 1,000 Palestinians homeless in an intensive demolition operation.

Israeli helicopter gunships pounded targets in Gaza City in an apparent attempt to assassinate Mohammed Al-Hindi.

In the first strike, a helicopter fired three missiles at the group’s headquarters, while a second raid hit Hindi’s home in the city’s Nasser district, damaging the offices of one of its charities in the same building.

Seventeen people were injured in the two strikes, but Hindi was unharmed.

Another senior Islamic Jihad activist, Mohammad Al-Sheikh Khalil, who heads its military wing in Gaza, also escaped unharmed from a later air strike in Rafah.

Israeli troops pulled out of Rafah shortly before the airstrike.

The UN Relief and Works Agency said the army had destroyed nearly 90 buildings, leaving more than 1,000 people homeless. “On entering the camp this morning, we found 88 buildings demolished which had housed 206 families. It affects 1,064 people,” said spokesman Paul McCann.

In Amman, US Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei to “seize the opportunity” of a proposed Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as a first step toward statehood next year.

Powell also said time is running out on President George W. Bush’s pledge to create a Palestinian state in 2005. “I don’t think anyone can predict” whether that timetable will be met, Powell said after a 40-minute meeting with Qorei.

Qorei said the Palestinian leadership wanted to see exactly what Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would propose. Qorei and Powell met at the Amman airport.