August 31, 2003	Sunday	Rajab 2, 1424

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GAZA, Aug 30: An Israeli army helicopter fired several missiles at a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing two Hamas activists in the latest violence battering the US-backed roadmap.

Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said the attack in the Bureij refugee camp destroyed any chance for talks with Israel to resume and called on the United States to interfere and halt the cycle of violence.

In a separate Gaza incident, an eight-year-old Palestinian girl was killed by an Israeli tank shell while riding her bike near her home in Khan Younis, a town adjacent to a Jewish settlement, Palestinian security sources and medics said.

Palestinian security officials said Abdullah Aqel, the leader of the Hamas’s military wing, Izz el Deen al Qassam Brigades in central Gaza, was killed in Saturday’s missile strike along with a Brigades member, Farid Mayet.

“This attack will undermine our efforts to provide quiet and also will put an end to any hopes to resume the peace process,” Mr Amr said.

“We hope our friends, the Americans, will interfere to prevent deterioration of the situation.”

Israeli sources said that Mr Aqel, 37, was behind recent rocket attacks on southern Israeli towns and cities from northern Gaza that Israel has claimed crossed its “red line” threshold for escalating an offensive against militants.—Reuters