MIDDLE EAST: Israel's Minister of Internal Security warned yesterday that there were extremists who had already taken a decision to carry out a political assassination, possibly against the Prime Minister, over Ariel Sharon's plan to dismantle settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Peter Hirschberg reports from Jerusalem
The Minister, Mr Tzachi Hanegbi of the ruling Likud party, made his comments as the Israeli parliament debated the growing danger posed by far-right extremists, who are opposed to the uprooting of settlements, to political leaders such as Mr Sharon.
The comments come just a day after the Prime Minister conceded that he was facing a personal threat.
Fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, meanwhile, continued yesterday, with an Israeli naval commando and six Palestinians killed in clashes in the occupied territories.
"I have no doubt," Mr Hanegbi answered, when asked whether he thought another Jewish assassin would emerge along the lines of Yigal Amir, who gunned down Yitzhak Rabin over his peace policies in 1995.
"There are already people, in my opinion, who have taken the decision that when the moment comes they will assassinate a minister, the Prime Minister, an army officer, a police officer."
In recent weeks, leaders on the far right, including rabbinic figures, have stepped up the rhetoric against Mr Sharon.
One settler leader said the use of violence to oppose the evacuation of settlements was legitimate.
Mr Sharon said on Monday that "it pains me that, as someone who all his life defended Jews in the wars of Israel, I now need protection from Jews, for fear someone might try to harm me".
At the parliamentary debate, lawmakers warned of the ramifications of another political assassination.
"We will not allow them to do to the Prime Minister what they did to Rabin," said Labour Party whip Ms Dalia Itzik. "We will do everything to protect Sharon."
The Israeli naval officer and four Palestinians - two militants belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and two civilians - were killed during a military raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The two civilians, who were killed in their home, were identified as Dr Khaled Saleh, an academic at A-Najah University, and his 16-year-old son Mohammed.
In Gaza, the Israeli army said troops shot dead two Palestinian gunmen who opened fire on their position.
Meanwhile, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, Dr Mohammed ElBaradei, arrived in Israel yesterday for a two-day visit, during which he will meet Mr Sharon but will not be allowed to tour the country's nuclear reactor in the southern desert town of Dimona.