THE MIDDLE EAST: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's right-wing Likud party voted last night against his bid to form the coalition he seeks with the centre-left Labour party to advance his Gaza withdrawal plan.
A preliminary count of all ballots announced by a Likud official showed about 60 per cent of Central Committee members voted for a motion by party rebels to bar Sharon from bringing Labour into the government.
The increasingly embattled Mr Sharon wants to bring the centre-left Labour Party into his coalition in order to implement his Gaza withdrawal plan. Mr Sharon lost his parliamentary majority two months ago when his government voted in favour of his plan to withdraw from Gaza and right-wing members of his coalition bolted.
The vote in the Likud body is not legally binding, but losing it is yet another blow to his prestige.
In a rare confession, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat yesterday admitted that "mistakes" had been made under his rule, but gave no concrete indication of any steps he planned to take to rectify them
"There is nobody immune from mistakes, starting from me on down. Even prophets committed mistakes," Mr Arafat told lawmakers at his compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The comments come several weeks after unrest exploded in the Gaza Strip, aimed mainly at the Palestinian Authority, in what was the most serious challenge to Mr Arafat's leadership since he entered the Occupied Territories following the signing of the Oslo Accords 10 years ago.
"There were wrong actions . . . by some institutions, and some were irresponsible and misused their positions," Mr Arafat said. "We need to move together to correct and reform all the mistakes."
Mr Arafat has long been under international pressure to implement reforms in his Palestinian Authority, specifically in his security forces, but has so far resisted entreaties from abroad. Last month, however, dissatisfaction with corruption and cronyism in the Palestinian Authority led to chaotic scenes in Gaza, where gunmen kidnapped officials, as well as foreigners, and burned government buildings.
None of the criticism, though, was aimed directly at Mr Arafat, who still remains the most potent symbol of Palestinian national aspirations. The Palestinian leader has promised reforms in the past but has never acted on them and there were suggestions yesterday that his latest admission was aimed mainly at defusing criticism.
Reflecting the scepticism among many Palestinians, lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi said yesterday that, "the results have to be translated into action".
In his speech, though, Mr Arafat placed the blame for the chaotic situation in Gaza on Israel: "Occupation is mainly responsible for this situation. It should not drag us away from doing what we can to end it."
In Gaza, meanwhile, five Palestinians were killed in the early hours of yesterday morning when an explosive device detonated near the house of a senior Hamas member, in what Israel later said was a strike at a leading member of the radical Islamic group. Four of the men killed were militants. The target of the assassination attempt was Hamas militant Ahmed Jabari, who escaped with light injuries. Israeli helicopter gunships struck two Gaza City buildings the army described as arms factories yesterday, but Palestinians said the targets were just civilian businesses.
With a strike by Palestinian security prisoners entering its fourth day, Israeli authorities made another attempt to break the strikers' will by releasing film of one of the leaders of the uprising eating in his cell.
The film, shot from a hidden camera, apparently shows Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five consecutive life terms in an Israeli jail after having been convicted of involvement in fatal attacks.