p>The failed attempt took place around 8:00 am GMT when two Israeli attack helicopter gunships launched at least five hell-fire missiles at a car believed to be that of Rantisi, traveling on a crowded street in downtown Gaza.

Luckily, the first two missiles landed seven to 10 meters from his car, allowing Rantisi, his son, Ahmed, and his driver and bodyguards to escape.

Nearly 20 seconds later, another three missiles hit the car, turning it into an inferno of fire and reducing it to charred, twisted metals.

Flying debris and shrapnel hit Rantisi in the lower part of his body, causing moderate injuries to his left leg and left forearm. Medical sources said the wounds were not life-threatening.

The missile attack, which took place in the vicinity of the Shifa Hospital in downtown Gaza, however, killed a 43-year-old mother and her 3-year-old daughter and injured as many as 27 civilians, mostly women, children and pedestrians, some seriously.

Following the attempt on Rantisi's life, thousands of angry Gazans took to the streets in Gaza, calling for revenge and more suicide bombings inside Israel.

The protesters castigated the reformist Palestinian government for failing to protect the Palestinian people from unceasing Israeli aggression.

"I say to (PA Prime Minister) Mahmoud Abbas, if you can't protect our people, let the people protect themselves," said one protester, alluding to Abbas's pledge to the Americans to disarm the resistance groups.

Another protester called on the Palestinian premier to resign immediately.

" If you can't protect your people and serve their interests, resign in dignity now."

Four hours after the attack, and while still in his hospital bed, Rantisi emerged at the Shifa hospital to which he was earlier transferred. He spoke defiantly, vowing to continue the struggle against "the criminal zionists who want to kill us and colonize our homeland."

"I assure Sharon and other zionist killers that my death will not consolidate their occupation of our country. And I call on our Arab and Muslim nation to wake up and realize the Nazi and criminal nature of this Zionist entity which only seeks to kill us and humiliate us. For our part, we will continue the struggle and we will defend this country of ours with all our strength."

Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority government strongly condemn the assassination attempt as "a criminal act."

"This is Sharon's response to (Palestinian Prime Minister) Mahmoud Abbas's conciliatory speech in Aqaba. It shows that this criminal regime understands only one language, it is the language of assassination and murder," said senior Hamas spokesman Islmael Haniyyeh, Shortly after the failed assassination attempt.

The PA also condemned the attempted murder of Rantisi, calling on the international community to rein in Israel's rampage.

"This is a criminal act which we condemn in the strongest terms, it is also a bullet fired at the heart international efforts to revive the peace process," said PA information Minister Nabil Amr.

Amr argued that Sharon was striving to weaken and corrode the Palestinian government.

"It is clear he (Sharon) wants to force us to leave the peace process so that he could tell the world that it is the Palestinians who don't want peace, not Israel."

Amr further argued that the real aim of the assassination attempt on Rantisi was to abort the Palestinian government's efforts to get Palestinian resistance groups, primarily Hamas, to agree to a cease-fire with Israel, which could increase international pressure on Israel to carry out its obligations, including stopping attacks on Palestinian population centers and dismantling more Jewish settlement outposts.

PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said the attempted assassination of Rantisi was an Israeli message of defiance to the United States and other quartet members.

"This is a deliberate act of provocation aimed at aborting the roadmap and all international and American efforts aimed at restarting the peace process. It is time the American administration intervenes to rein in Israel to stop her brazen aggression."

The assassination attempt on Rantisi came only a few hours after representative of the main Palestinian political and resistance factions agreed to resume talks with the Abbas' government for the purpose of reaching a possible truce with Israel.

The groups issued a statement stressing that the real contradiction wasn't between the PA and the resistance groups but rather between the entire Palestinian people and the Zionist occupation.

Hamas also issued a separate statement, responding to Abbas' accusations, made during a press conference in Ramallah on Monday, 9 June, that Hamas was manipulating Palestinian suffering to make political gains.

The statement stressed that "our people's suffering was the result of the Zionist repression and occupation of our homeland."

It went on, reminding Abbas that "had it not been for the enduring struggle and resistance, no people would have gained its freedom and independence from colonialist powers."

The statement did leave the door open for "a frank, transparent, and honest dialogue with our brothers in the Palestinian Authority."

Earlier, Hamas and other resistance groups had castigated Abbas' speech in Aqaba, describing it as "bordering treason."

Indeed, what angered Hamas, and the Palestinian public in general, was the fact that Abbas completely ignored in his speech such central issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict as Jerusalem, the refugees, the settlements, and the consistent Palestinian demand for full Israeli withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from all the territories seized by Israel in 1967.

Abbas sought unsuccessfully to "clarify" his stance to that effect, but his words in Aqaba overshadowed any possible clarification.

Finding himself between the Israeli-American hammer and his own people's anvil, Abbas sought to defend his hapless speech in Aqaba, arguing that it didn't deviate from the overall Palestinian position and that PA chairman Yasser Arafat had been aware of it.

Abbas' remarks only underscored the virtually impossible dilemma of having to appease the United States, which expects him to fight "terror," and meeting the very minimal expectations of the Palestinian people, including putting an end to daily Israeli killings, incursions, and home demolitions throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Undoubtedly, the assassination attempt on Rantisi will further embarrass Abbas and make his already acute dilemma even acuter.

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