Israel launched at least two missiles at a convoy of cars carrying a senior member of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction today, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.
West Bank Fatah leader Mr Marwan Barghouthi said missiles were fired at two cars near his office near Ramallah in the West Bank but did not hit his vehicle.
It hit the car of one of my bodyguards and another man wanted by the (Israeli) occupation authorities, Mr Barghouthi said on Voice of Palestine radio.
"This is a failed assassination attempt and this is a cowardly act by (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon and a crime. The criminal occupiers will pay for this new crime," he said.
It was unclear if Mr Barghouthi was the target of the missile strike, which the Fatah leader said occurred close to his office shortly after he had left the building.
One of Barghouthi's aides sustained burns to the face and an elderly man who was walking by was also hurt, a Palestinian hospital source said.
An Israeli security source said missiles had been fired at the convoy in Ramallah from the nearby Jewish settlement of Psagot. The target was the car of Mohamad Abu Halaweh, a member of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Force-17 presidential bodyguard, the source said.
The Israeli army declined to make immediate comment on today's attack.
Crowds of people gathered at the scene around the charred and twisted remains of a car. The explosions blew out windows in nearby buildings. An ambulance was at the scene.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo called the strike an assassination attempt on Mr Barghouthi, who has been a key player in the 10-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
It was the second Israeli missile strike in the West Bank in a week. Israel killed eight people, including two senior figures in the Islamic militant group Hamas and two children, in a helicopter missile strike in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday.
Earlier Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers destroyed a Palestinian police building in a brief incursion into Palestinian-ruled territory in the Gaza Strip today followed by an extensive gun battle.
Palestinian security officials reported that eight Israeli tanks and four bulldozers entered Palestinian territory near the Kfar Darom Jewish settlement in central Gaza and destroyed a two-story police building.
The Israeli army said the pre-dawn raid was in response to mortar fire on Kfar Darom yesterday which slightly wounded a father and his young son in the settlement.
A military spokeswoman said the mortar rounds had been fired from the police building destroyed in today's incursion. "There was a direct connection between the mortar fire and the building that was destroyed," the spokeswoman said.