December 5, 2002	Thursday	Ramazan 29,1423

GAZA, Dec 4: Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at a Palestinian Authority compound in Gaza City on Wednesday, killing a master bombmaker responsible for blowing up three Israeli tanks, witnesses and militants said.

The missile strike apparently targeted Mustafa Sabah, 35, a guard at the compound. Palestinian sources said he was also a senior “engineer” for a militant umbrella group behind a series of attacks on Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

Helicopters fired three missiles at the guard house Sabah was manning, blasting a hole through the concrete structure. Reporters later saw his dismembered body being removed.

The Palestinian Popular Resistance Committee said Sabah assembled the bombs that destroyed Israeli-made Merkava-3 tanks, a symbol of the Jewish state’s military prowess, in three attacks carried out since February.

Seven tank crew members were killed. The army modified the tanks to deal with the new threat.

“We promise the hero martyr that we will avenge every drop of his blood and that our response will come soon,” the group, a coalition of factions waging a two-year-old uprising for independence, said in a statement issued in Gaza.

The Israeli army said it carried out a “targeted strike to prevent further attacks”, but declined to elaborate.

BLOODSHED IN WEST BANK: There was also bloodshed in the West Bank, where Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinian militants in a gunbattle at their cave hideout near the city of Al Khalil.

The Islamic Jihad militants opened fire from the cave at a group of soldiers sent to arrest them, and the soldiers returned fire and killed them, the army said. The troops then blew up the cave, Palestinian witnesses said.

International efforts have failed to end the violence. In the latest diplomatic move, the UN General Assembly approved resolutions aimed at promoting Palestinian rights. — AFP