Attack on relief envoy denounced

GAZA, March 17 (UPI) -- Palestinian leaders Saturday denounced a failed assassination attempt on a United Nations relief organization official riding in a convoy in Gaza.

Sources in the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNWRA, said 11 bullets fired by three unknown gunmen pierced the armored vehicle in which the organization's director, John Ging, was riding Friday, but he was not hurt, reported KUNA, the Kuwait News Agency.

The Palestine Liberation Organization's Refugees Department issued a statement Saturday calling the attack "a criminal act by 'misled and hired' gunmen working on an external agenda and had nothing to do with the Palestinian national work.

"The Palestinian people and leadership denounce and reject such an act which is also considered aggression against all Palestinians who supported the UNRWA during the campaign by Israel against it over the past three years," the statement said.

The PLO stressed the close ties between Ging and the refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip camps.