new public opinion surveys showing that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud Party recovered its lead over the opposition Labor party.
Opinion polls published Monday, January 13, showed the scandal- plagued Likud party winning as many as 33 seats in the 120- member parliament, the Knesset.
Last week, that figure dipped as low as 27 seats, down from an expected 40 seats a few weeks ago, after reports of vote buying and a more recent scandal surrounding Sharon’s alleged illegal $1.5 million loan from a South African businessman
The opposition Labor Party slipped to 20 seats in the latest polls, Israeli newspapers said, ahead of Israeli elections on January 28. Analysts attributed Sharon’s apparent rise in popularity to his support for hard-line policies towards alleged terrorists.
FUNERALS UNDERWAY
The surveys came as both Palestinians and Israelis prepared to burry their dead, including two Palestinian teenagers who were killed when two Israeli helicopter gunships fired three missiles into a Gaza orchard.
Two Hamas militants who were the apparent target of the failed air strike, fled the scene unharmed, said medics and witnesses. In total 11 Palestinians and two Israelis were killed in several in Israel and Palestinian territories during several clashes which continued overnight, news reports said.
NEW KILLINGS
In one of the latest incidents Monday, January 13, Israeli Defense Forces shot dead two Palestinians near Gaza who were seen approaching a bus. Israeli military sources said two Palestinians were armed, the Voice of America (VOA) network and other media reported.
Israeli officials have also expressed concern about attacks by Palestinian militants entering from neighbouring Egypt. Palestinian gunmen infiltrated into Israel in two separate attacks Sunday, January 12, one from the West Bank into the northern Israeli community of Gadish and a second from Egypt into southern Israel.
A security guard in Gadish was killed in the attack before troops killed the two gunmen, while an Israeli soldier died in a clash that erupted near the Egyptian border where the two gunmen were discovered and shot dead, the Reuters news agency said.
ISLAMIC JIHAD
The militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the Gadish attack. "We are definitely witnessing a rising wave of terror," Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told Israel Radio on Monday, January 13.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of the militant Islamic group Hamas, denied that attacks in a 27-month-old Palestinian uprising against occupation were influenced by the ballot.
"We are defending ourselves and will not stop our resistance either before the election or after the election. Sharon and Mofaz will go and resistance will remain," Reuters quoted Yassin as saying at a Gaza demonstration to support Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails.
At least 1,775 Palestinians and 694 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, began in mid 2000, following failed negotiations about Palestinian statehood.
