- JENIN, West Bank (Reuters)
- Two top Palestinian militant commanders were killed in an explosion in
Jenin refugee camp that witnesses said was caused by a missile fired by
an Israeli warplane.
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- The deaths of Ala'a Sabbagh of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
and Imad Nasharti of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades on Tuesday night
raised the specter of a surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence on the eve
of a pre-election leadership ballot in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ruling
Likud party.
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- But their deaths could also give Sharon a boost among
members of the right-wing Likud two days before the leadership vote in
which his more hawkish Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is challenging
him.
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- Palestinian security sources said both those killed,
Jenin area commanders for their respective groups, had been wanted by Israeli
security forces for months.
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- Witnesses in the Jenin camp told Reuters they had seen
an Israeli F-16 jet fire a missile at a friend's house where Sabbagh and
Nasharti had been hiding. The body of one of the militants was torn to
pieces in the explosion.
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- A Reuters correspondent saw an F-16 flying overhead at
the time and said it had released a flare. But he did not see it fire any
missiles.
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- The Israeli army declined comment and a military source
told Reuters: "It wasn't the Israel Defense Forces."
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- But his comment did not rule out the possibility that
a non-military Israeli security service such as Shin Bet could have carried
out the attack.
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- The Israeli military and Shin Bet have killed dozens
of senior militants in operations that Palestinians have branded state-sponsored
assassinations, and that many countries have condemned.
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- Israel calls the track-and-kill attacks self-defense
in the face of suicide bombings in which dozens of its citizens have died.
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- CONFLICTING PRESSURES
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- Sharon has been juggling conflicting pressures to look
tough before Israel's January 28 general election while avoiding an escalation
in the conflict with the Palestinians that could harm U.S. efforts to win
Arab support for possible war on Iraq.
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- Israel's previous killings of senior militants since
the start in September 2000 of a Palestinian uprising for statehood have
drawn deadly revenge attacks inside Israel and against Jewish settlements
on occupied land in the West Bank and Gaza.
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- At least 1,680 Palestinians and 662 Israelis have been
killed since the uprising began.
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- Polls show Sharon with a commanding lead over Netanyahu
in Thursday's Likud ballot. Sharon is also favored to beat dovish Labour
Party rival Amram Mitzna in the national election.
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- "Don't be complacent," Sharon told supporters
during a speech in the northern city of Hadera. "The battle has not
yet been won."
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- Al-Aqsa, affiliated with Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat's Fatah faction, and Qassam, the military wing of the fundamentalist
Islamic group Hamas, have killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings.
Arafat has condemned such attacks.
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- Earlier on Tuesday, tanks backed by helicopter gunships
battled Palestinian gunmen during an Israeli raid in the central Gaza Strip
and troops rounded up dozens of Palestinians in the West Bank in a sweep
for militants.
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- Israeli forces blew up a four-story house belonging to
a Palestinian militant during the operation in Deir al-Balah refugee camp
before withdrawing.
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- The Gaza incursion was part of an Israeli drive against
militant groups following a suicide bombing on a bus in Jerusalem last
week that killed 11 Israelis in a resurgence of violence in the Palestinian
revolt.
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- Looking toward Israel's general election, Palestinian
officials said they planned to step up contacts with Israeli doves in a
bid to persuade Israelis that Palestinians are committed to peace.
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- In an incident after nightfall, the army said soldiers
had shot an armed Palestinian near the Jewish settlement of Rafiah Yam
in the Gaza Strip but it did not know if he was dead.
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