Policeman killed in ‘assassination’ attack

Israeli helicopters fired rockets at a car parked near the Palestinian Authority security headquarters in the West Bank town of Jenin today, killing a policeman.

Palestinian Ala’a Jaloudi was standing near the car when it was hit. He was hit in the head with shrapnel and died later at Jenin hospital.

Inside the car was Moutasem Sabaa, 26, from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement. A member of the Tanzim militia, Sabaa’s car was hit by at least five rockets, witnesses said. The Israeli army had no immediate comment.

Sabaa was badly burnt in the attack, and is in critical condition, hospital officials said.

‘‘It looks as if it was an assassination,’’ said Ghassan Samer, 43, one of the first to arrive on the scene. He helped remove Sabaa’s badly burnt body from the wreckage.

‘‘I am sure that the gunships were targeting one person. This a terror by the Israelis, they put terror in the heart of the people by shelling a car near so many people,’’ he said.

At least 17 people were admitted to a local hospital and treated for shock and shrapnel injuries. Many of the injured were students returning home from school, hospital officials said.

Witnesses said four helicopters flew overhead and fired the rockets into the car.

Emergency services arrived on the scene to extinguish the flames that engulfed the car, now a twisted pile of metal.

The attack comes a day after Israeli bulldozers flattened a police station and five homes in the deepest foray into Palestinian territory since field commanders last week were given a free hand to carry out such retaliatory raids.

Also today, Palestinians in Gaza City buried 16-year-old Hassan Tafish, who was killed by Israeli troops who fired live ammunition at several stone throwers in Gaza yesterday.

Male relatives lined up outside the morgue at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to bid farewell to Tafish. At his home in Gaza City, female relatives wept hysterically over pictures of Tafish. One woman later fainted.