Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 2 September 2003 — Israeli helicopter gunships yesterday fired missiles at a car carrying a Hamas activist, killing him instantly. Twenty-five bystanders were injured in the attack in Gaza City.

Relatives identified the dead man as Khader Al-Husari, a senior operative of the Izz El-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing. Hamas sources said two other senior Qassam members were among those wounded in the attack.

It was the sixth such helicopter attack since Aug. 21. Israel has now killed 11 activists and three bystanders in the Gaza Strip strikes — bloodshed coinciding with the collapse of a truce that had underpinned the peace road map.

“Three missiles hit the white Subaru,” said Mohammed Murad, who was standing outside his electrical shop when the attack occurred. “People inside the car were on fire... The ground was shaking and people were screaming and running.”

Murad was wounded in the chest and back.

Israeli helicopters last attacked on Saturday, killing Abdullah Aqel, commander of Hamas’ armed wing in central Gaza.

“The continuation of the Israeli assassination policy is... going to be responsible for further deterioration,” said Palestinian Cabinet Minister Ghassan Al-Khatib.

Palestinian militant groups renounced a seven-week-old truce after the first in the current spate of Israeli missile attacks on Aug. 21.

Despite the latest Israeli attack, leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority met for the first time in nearly two weeks, discussing the possibility of a new truce that could help clear the way for progress on the road map, a Palestinian official said.

Egyptian leaders held separate talks in Cairo on Sunday with Hamas representative Osama Hamdan and Palestinian Authority legislator Ziad Abu Amr, and then arranged for the two to meet directly late Sunday, a Palestinian official close to the talks said.

It was the first known meeting between the two sides since the Palestinian Authority broke off contact with Hamas on Aug. 19.

The two representatives left Egypt yesterday morning, but contacts between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are continuing, and both sides have already presented their ideas for a new truce, the Palestinian official said.

But divisions within the Palestinian Authority seemed to have widened with the speaker of the Palestinian Parliament saying that President Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas are no longer able to work together.

“This conflict has become intolerable, for the differences are such that the two leaders cannot work together,” Ahmad Qorei told Al-Ayam newspaper. “The conflict cannot be settled unless they agree to work together.”

“Arafat is fighting a battle to protect himself as a leader. It is a battle also to protect the Palestinian people, not just the leadership,” said Palestinian MP for Jerusalem Hatim Abdul Qadar.