Five Palestinians have been killed in some of the fiercest Middle East violence seen in weeks. Four of the dead were Palestinian policemen. Dozens more people were wounded in gun battles with Israeli troops. Meanwhile the Israeli Parliament has voted to pave the way for former right-wing leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, to stand for Prime Minister.
As the law currently stands, Mr Netanyahu is barred from running in the special election for Prime Minister due to be held in February, after Prime Minister Ehud Barak's resignation last Sunday. The bill aims to change the law that stipulates that only sitting MPs can stand. Mr Netanyahu, who is leading in opinion polls, quit politics after his election defeat to Mr Barak in May 1999.
Israeli forces killed four Palestinian policemen in a gun battle, which raged for a number of hours near a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. The battle began when the Israeli authorities sent in a bulldozer to destroy an embankment, which they said was used by Palestinian gunmen to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians. The Palestinians said that the embankment was on the edge of Palestinian-controlled territory and Israel had no right to enter the area. The deaths bring to 318 the number of people, most of them Palestinians, killed in eleven weeks of violence between Palestinians and Israelis.
