An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a West Bank car today killing a leader of a militant group linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction and two comrades.
Witnesses said three men were in the car when it was attacked in the centre of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, and all were killed while several passersby were wounded.
Palestinians said the dead men were members of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a Fatah-linked armed group involved in a four-year-old uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
One of the dead men was the deputy Brigades leader in Jenin, Mahmoud Abu Khalifeh.
The Israeli army said in a statement released several hours after the attack that its air force had "targeted a vehicle carrying senior (Al-Aqsa brigades militants)" in Jenin.
A military spokeswoman said that three militants were killed, including Abu Khalifeh, whom Israel accuses of involvement in plotting large attacks against Israelis.
"I saw a small plane and then a flash of light, then I heard a huge explosion and a car went up in flames," Abdel Karim Abdel Rahman, a witness, told Reuters of the strike launched near the Jenin municipality.
Militants gathered outside Jenin hospital shortly after the attack, and fired guns into the air in protest, witnesses said.
The witnesses said the missile was launched by an Israeli aircraft, possibly a drone. The army declined comment on which type of aircraft was used in the strike.
Israel frequently kills militants in targeted aerial attacks in the Palestinian territories.