An Israeli soldier has been shot dead during exchanges of fire in the Gaza Strip, on the eve of today's election for the position of prime minister. The incumbent, Mr Ehud Barak, warned that his contest with Mr Ariel Sharon was a choice between war and peace.
The soldier was hit by a single bullet while driving an armoured vehicle in a military convoy near the Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah, on the Gaza border with Egypt, an Israeli army spokesman said.
Witnesses said troops were firing rocket-propelled grenades at Palestinian gunmen as the fighting intensified.
The killing raises the death toll to an estimated 396 in just over four months of fighting: 330 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs, 52 other Israelis and one German. It was reported that Israeli tanks responded with shell and rocket fire in the direction of the shooting, damaging a house and a generator for the refugee camp.
In a last-minute, and probably futile, appeal to voters, Mr Barak wrote in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily: "We are being called to decide whether between us and peace there is another blood-filled war." For his part, Mr Sharon ruled out peace talks until violence stops. "The Israeli government, under my leadership, will not hold negotiations under fire and will not grant any prize for violence. Only after the violence ends . . . will we resume negotiations," he wrote in the same newspaper. With opinion polls putting Mr Barak 18 to 20 per cent behind Mr Sharon, it was taken as a reflection of the challenger's confidence that he withdrew from the campaign yesterday and spent the time with aides and strategists from his Likud party.
Already attention is beginning to focus on Mr Sharon's prospects of forming a government in the wake of the ballot. He is expected to try and form a national unity coalition and there is speculation he may invite his opponents in the Labour party to fill the posts of defence and foreign ministers.
The name of former prime minister and Nobel prizewinner, Mr Shimon Peres, has been linked with the foreign minister's post. If the margin of defeat is very wide, Mr Barak may come under pressure from his party to vacate the leadership.
Given the disparate array of forces in the Knesset, Mr Sharon is likely to find difficulty forming a stable administration and there is an expectation that he may be forced to call a general election in the relatively near future.
As fears grow of a Palestinian backlash after the election, the Islamic Jihad group has threatened to launch attacks on Israel in revenge for the death of one of its members. In a statement, it said Shadi al-Kahlout had been on a mission with a 33-pound bomb when he was shot by Israeli forces as he tried to cross the border from Gaza on Saturday.
At least 1,500 Palestinians marched at Kahlout's funeral, calling for revenge, witnesses said. Activists who carried his coffin had sticks of explosives strapped to their waists.
Two Palestinians accused of taking part in the lynching of two Israeli soldiers appeared before an Israeli military court for the first time yesterday. A Palestinian policeman, Mr Ra'ed Sheikh (24) and his fellow accused, Mr Ali Hamdan (23) did not enter pleas but told reporters they were innocent of stabbing and beating to death two Israeli reservists in the police station of the West Bank town of Ramallah on October 12th.
Russia is ready to do work with the next Israeli leader, whoever wins the elections, the Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov said yesterday during a meeting with members of the United States' Jewish community in Moscow, Interfax reported.