MIDEAST: Unaffected by the dramas unfolding in Iraq, Israeli-Palestinian violence continued yesterday, with five Palestinians killed, including two gunmen who infiltrated an Israeli army base at dawn and shot dead two soldiers.
The gunmen, who came from the West Bank city of Nablus and were affiliated with Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, threw hand-grenades and fired on the soldiers at a base in the Jordan Valley nearby. One of them was killed in an ensuing exchange of fire and the second after a chase.
In Gaza City, for the second time in three days, Israel fired missiles at a car to hit an alleged leading Islamic extremist - this time killing Mahmoud Zatne, one of the leaders of the Islamic Jihad group.
In Tulkarm, two Palestinian gunmen were killed yesterday afternoon in what Palestinians said was an exchange of fire with undercover Israeli troops.
Islamic leaders in Gaza are mourning the fall of Saddam's regime. Mohammad al-Hindi, from Islamic Jihad, said he hoped that the welcome for US troops in Baghdad would, with time, give way to the same reverse as when Israeli troops invaded Beirut 21 years ago - initially welcomed, subsequently attacked. Hamas, meanwhile, has called for an Islamic government to be set up in Baghdad and for Iraqis to replicate the Palestinians' intifada tactics.