Jerusalem - The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, yesterday met the Mitchell Commission set up to investigate the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence, writes Peter Hirschberg. Before holding a 90-minute meeting with the fact-finding committee headed by the former US senator and Northern Ireland peacebroker, Mr George Mitchell, Mr Sharon was highly critical of the fact that the commission had been set up in the first place. Calling the committee a "historic mistake", Mr Sharon said "no one has the right, no one, to put Israel on trial before the world".
On a day in which hostilities surged in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a kidnapped Israeli was handed back by Palestinian forces. An Israeli motorist was seriously injured when he was hit by bullets fired by Palestinian gunmen yesterday morning near the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. At least 21 Palestinians were injured in confrontations yesterday with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. The bullet-ridden bodies of two Palestinians were found last night in a car in Jericho, a Palestinian source said. Palestinian police opened an inquiry into the killings.