The Popular Resistance Committees announced on Friday that its leader, Abu Yousef Al Qouqa, 44, was assassinated when a wired vehicle detonated fifty meters away from his home in Al Nassr Street, in Gaza city.
Abu Abeer, the spokesperson of the Committees reported that the assassination was carried out when the army remotely detonated the car.
He added that Al Qouqa was on his way to a nearby mosque for Friday prayers, and that the wired vehicle detonated as he walked by it.
Al Qouqa survived three assassination attempts in during the Al Aqsa Intifada, and his house was shelled two times by the Israeli forces.
Last month, Israel assassinated Abu Khaled Al Dahdouh, one of the leaders of the Al Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad, by detonating a wired car.
Meanwhile, an Israeli military source denied responsibility for the attack; “It wasn’t us”, army spokeswoman claimed.
Mahmoud Al Zahhar, the Palestinian Foreign Minister, said that the assassination means that Israel does not intend to stop its aggression.
“This means that our resistance should continue”, Al Zahhar added.
The assassination followed a suicide bombing carried on Thursday at night in the West Bank.
Israeli sources reported that four settlers were killed when a Palestinian suicide bomber who disguised as a haredi (religious) hitchhiker stepped into their car and blew his explosive belt.
Following the bombing, the Israeli Defense Minister, Shaulf Mofaz, ordered the army to step up the assassinations against resistance fighters.
Late on Thursday at night, Israeli soldiers shelled several areas in the Gaza Strip; army claims that the shelled areas are “suspected Qassam homemade shells launch sites.
