Israel kills boy and four Palestinians in an assassination attempt

"Israeli occupation forces (IOF) killed early Friday four Palestinian citizens and destroyed two house in the village of Al-Mughraqa, south of Gaza," an IPC report said.

"More than fifteen Israeli tank, armored vehicles and bulldozers swept the village of Mughraqa killing four citizens and destroyed two house. Helicopters also participated in the attack, Palestinian security sources said," the report said.

A Palestine Media Center report said: Four Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed in a failed assassination attempt on a Palestinian activist where helicopter gunships and tanks fired on the home of Adnan al-Ghul, a senior Hamas official, in al-Mughraqa. The report quoted relatives of al-Ghul that he was "alive and free," and that "He had escaped another Israeli assassination attempt last year, which killed another of his sons."

Meantime, a Palestinian IPC report quoted Ireland's Foreign Minister, Brian Cowen, in Ramallah on Thursday, in his press conference with President Yasser Arafat as saying “I was astonished to see the situation you live, in Mr. President (Arafat), these circumstances should be changed immediately,” Cowen said. "Arafat expressed his deep gratitude to Cowen for his visit in these “hard times” that the Palestinian people live (trough), the report added.

Also, IPC reported that "Meanwhile, Mohammad Dahalan, Palestinian Minister for Security Affairs, was reported as saying that the PA would act in its own way to dismantle armed Palestinian groups and that such arrangements are Palestinain concern not Israeli."