Netanyahu mulls return to political battle in Israel

JERUSALEM - Israeli troops have unleashed heavy machinegun fire on a West Bank Palestinian town while Benjamin Netanyahu staged what could be the opening shot of a comeback bid.

The Army said it fired at the town of Beit Jala after dark in response to Palestinian gunfire on an Israeli Army post in the Jewish settlement Gilo at the edge of Jerusalem. The sound of gunfire echoed across the hills of the holy city.

A hospital said two Palestinians were wounded by shrapnel.

Netanyahu, a former right-wing Prime Minister, said yesterday that he was weighing whether to challenge Labour Party Prime Minister Ehud Barak for a rematch in an election that could take place in May. Barak ousted Netanyahu only 18 months ago.

Mobbed by reporters at Tel Aviv airport on his return from a United States lecture tour, Netanyahu looked every bit the candidate, surrounded by bodyguards and sounding familiar themes about security and the fears of Israeli mothers.

"A mother can't send her children out of the house in the morning. The country has reached rock bottom and this needs to be changed," Netanyahu said.

To challenge Barak, Netanyahu would have to oust Ariel Sharon, his successor as Likud leader. Netanyahu leads Barak in opinion polls, but the gap could narrow once he announces his candidacy, reviving memories of his three years in office.

Violence raged again yesterday in parts of the West Bank and Gaza, setting back hopes of ending bloodshed in which at least 294 people have been killed, most of them Palestinians waging an uprising for independence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Police said one Israeli apartment was hit in the attack on Gilo but no Israeli was hurt. Gilo was built on West Bank land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed with Arab East Jerusalem. Israel regards it as a Jerusalem neighbourhood.

In a separate incident, a Jewish settler was wounded by Israeli Army fire near the West Bank village of Kufr al-Dik. The man, a taxi driver, sped up when panicked by gunshots and the Army opened fire, thinking he was trying to smash through a roadblock.

President Yasser Arafat denied a suggestion that secret negotiations with the Israelis were under way in a Scandinavian country. But he told reporters "not to forget we are not against negotiations with them."

Arafat said that yesterday he grabbed his submachinegun in public for the first time in years and kept it in his hand for protection because Jewish settlers blocked a main road he was travelling along in the Gaza Strip.

- REUTERS

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