Israeli forces gunned down a member of an armed commando trying to infiltrate the northeast of the country on Wednesday, hours after killing two Palestinians in an increased crackdown on militants in the wake of a suicide bomb attack in Tel Aviv.
Amid the latest violence, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon went on the counter-offensive against stinging corruption allegations which have damaged his standing just three weeks ahead of general elections.
According to Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post, Sharon,
publicly addressing the allegations for the first time, called the accusations ”a despicable political plot”.
The paper reported a haggard-looking Sharon as saying: ”I will prove the allegations false with documents and facts. Those who published this plot against me have one only goal, and that is to overthrow the prime minister.”
Meanwhile, Israeli troops patrolling the northeastern border area shot dead an unidentified armed man and captured another. The two men were part of a commando trying to infiltrate the Jewish state in the area where Israel borders Arab neighbours Jordan and Syria, Israeli military sources said.
The gunmen opened fire on the patrol in the Hamat Gader area, a natural spring beside the Yarmuk river marking the border with Jordan and some 15 kilometres from Syria, Israeli military sources added.
Early on Wednesday, the Israeli army shot dead an 18-year-old Palestinian in the northern West Bank village of Saida near Tulkarem, Palestinian witnesses said.
They said he was a civilian standing on the roof of a building near a house which soldiers were demolishing when one of them opened fire on him.
But the army said Israeli forces had responded to Palestinian fire and that the young man had been armed.
Another Palestinian man was also gunned down during an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, a few hundred metres from the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim, Palestinian witnesses said.
Israel has reoccupied all West Bank cities and towns except Jericho since last June in a bid to dismantle what it calls Palestinian ”terrorist cells”.
In the wake of a deadly suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Sunday that killed 22 people, the Jewish state further tightened restrictions on Palestinian movement, confining senior officials to their cities and barring all other Palestinians under 35 from leaving the territories.
Palestinian officials slammed the measure as part of a plan to smash what remains of Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority (PA).
A top-level Palestinian delegation was also prevented from travelling to London for talks next week on internal reforms with other regional and international interlocutors, at the invitation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The United States, which has long called for a change in the Palestinian leadership and the overhaul of Arafat’s PA, did not condemn the Israeli ban although Russia called for Israel to revoke its decision.
The Greek presidency of the European Union on Wednesday warned that the ban ”perpetuates hatred and extremism”.
Under mounting pressure to answer damaging corruption allegations in the Israeli press, Sharon lashed out at snowballing reports of financial misdealings to bankroll his 1999 Likud leadership campaign.
”This is a shameful political slander and I will prove it, by facts and documents,” Sharon told public radio. ”Whoever is behind this has but one goal: to overthrow a prime minister.”
The allegations centre on a $1,5-million bank guarantee he and his sons reportedly secured from a South African businessman to cover debts he was obliged to pay back for illegal campaign contributions run up during his 1999 Likud leadership race.
A poll released on Wednesday showed that 31% of Israelis consider Sharon unfit to stay on as premier after the scandal. It was the first time his personal popularity has been hit despite a series of damaging corruption affairs dogging his right-wing Likud party in the run-up to Israel’s January 28 general election.
The South African businessman, Cyril Kern, has acknowledged making the payment, saying he was an old friend of Sharon, but dismissed the allegations of corruption.
The charges came on the heels of a vote-buying scandal in Likud. Likud called the latest reports ”lies”, blaming them on the opposition Labour party.
But a poll showed that 31% of respondents believed Sharon was not fit to remain prime minister if the same rules he used to sack one of his deputy ministers caught up in December’s cash-for-votes scandal were applied.
Another 46% saw no reason for the prime minister to step down. – Sapa-AFP