Rockets fired from IAF Apache helicopters slammed into a parked car in the city of Jenin yesterday, killing a Fatah activist and a Palestinian policeman. Motassem al-Sabbagh, head of Fatah's youth division, and policeman Allam Jaloudi, apparently standing near the car at the time, were killed. An additional 15 people were hurt, two seriously, in the attack.

According to Palestinian sources, intelligence officer Abdel-Karim Oweis, 30, who was lightly wounded in the helicopter strike, was the intended target of the attack. Oweis is the head of the local military wing of the Tanzim and was allegedly planning to shell the nearby settlements of Kadim and Ganim with mortars.

"Israel attempted to assassinate today an officer in the

"This is state-sponsored terrorism" - Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath

Palestinian intelligence apparatus, Abdel-Karim Oweis, by firing missiles from helicopters on his car,'' Tawfiq al-Tirawi, the head of Palestinian intelligence in the West Bank, told Reuters.

According to the Reuters report, "four Israeli helicopters fired three missiles at Oweis's car." Witnesses said that the first projectile hit the road near the car, leaving a large crater. Oweis managed to flee and a second missile aimed at him damaged a private house nearby. The intelligence officer was hit in the head by shrapnel.

"This is state-sponsored terrorism,'' Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath told reporters. "It should be condemned by everybody."

No Israeli acknowledgement for helicopter attack
Israel did not officially acknowledge responsibility for the helicopter attack. The strike is the latest incident of an unofficial Israeli policy of targeting Palestinians responsible for organizing and/or planning terrorist activities against Israelis. A month ago Iyyad Hardin, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, was killed in an explosion at a booby-trapped public telephone booth in Jenin.

Minister of Science, Culture & Sport Matan Vilnai (Labor) told Army Radio today that Israel would continue to wage war against those responsible for planning terrorist actions against Israeli targets.

The Fatah movement distributed a leaflet in Jenin yesterday calling for revenge for the helicopter attack. "This assassination will increase our resolve to respond and take revenge,'' the leaflet said. The Fatah warned they had mortar shells and would be targeting Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Military sources quoted on Army Radio today confirmed this warning and say the question of Palestinian mortar attacks in Judea and Samaria is only a matter of time.

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