MIDDLE EAST: Two Israeli soldiers, one an officer, were killed in the early hours of yesterday morning in the West Bank city of Nablus, when they were gunned down by two Palestinian militants, both of whom were shot and killed by Israeli troops. Two more Palestinians - male nurses working in a home for the elderly - were killed by helicopter fire in the Gaza Strip late on Wednesday night, writes Peter Hirschberg, in Tel Aviv
The two soldiers, Mr Amir Ben-Aryeh (21) and Mr Idan Suzin (20), were killed after two gunmen crept up to their base, on the edge of a neighbourhood belonging to the Samaritans, an ancient Biblical sect who live in Nablus, opened fire and tossed grenades as the soldiers were performing a drill aimed at preventing just such an attack. Other soldiers in the base charged the two gunmen and shot them dead.
Around midday, security forces declared a high alert in northern Israel after receiving warnings that one or more Palestinians had infiltrated from the West Bank. Towards evening, security forces announced that two Islamic Jihad members, who they said were in possession of an explosives belt and were planning an attack, had been captured.
In the Gaza Strip, two male nurses - Mr Abed el-Karim Lubed and Mr Mohammed Hasin - were cut down late on Wednesday night by machine-gun fire from a helicopter as they treated a patient in a home for the elderly on the outskirts of Gaza City. "Bullets penetrated the glass window and killed both of them," said Mr Munir Al-Bursh, the hospital director.
Doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers dressed in their white uniforms headed the funeral procession of more than 1,000 in the Strip. The army said the helicopter fire was meant as cover for troops trying to arrest a Palestinian militant.
In northern Israel, an Arab citizen was shot dead when he began scuffling with police after they called him over for questioning. The police claimed that the man had tried to snatch one of the officer's guns. Neighbours of the man, from the village of Umm al Fahm, said he was mentally unstable.
On the political front, Israeli President Moshe Katsav yesterday wound up consultations with party leaders and will on Sunday ask the Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, whose Likud party won a decisive victory in last week's election, to begin forming a government.
Mr Katsav yesterday met the leader of the Labour Party, Mr Amram Mitzna, in an effort to persuade him to join a unity government under Mr Sharon, but Mr Mitzna stuck to his pledge to lead the opposition, saying that "our paths are totally different".