ISRAEL: Thousands of mourners yesterday marched at the funeral of two Israeli Arabs among four shot dead by a Jewish militant in an attack that put Israel on alert for a possible wave of Arab unrest.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon condemned the gunman, an Israeli soldier who was beaten to death by enraged residents after the attack, as a "bloodthirsty terrorist". The killer apparently sought to inflame violence to stop Israel's Gaza pullout plan.
Sharon vowed to begin pulling Israeli settlers and troops out of occupied Gaza starting August 17th regardless of efforts made by ultra-rightist Jews to thwart the move, touted by the US as a step towards peacemaking with the Palestinians.
Thousands of Israeli police redeployed to Arab areas of northern Israel, where Thursday's attack aboard an inter-city bus occurred, to pre-empt potential riots. The bus driver and a middle-aged male passenger, both Christians, were also killed in the attack.