Israeli couple shot dead in Mideast

JERUSALEM -- The late Israeli extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane's son Binyamin Zeev Kahane and his wife were shot dead in a hail of Palestinian gunfire yesterday near the West Bank settlement of Ofra, witnesses said.

Binyamin Kahane, 39, was killed instantly after being shot with automatic gunfire. His wife, Talia, 33, died later of her injuries. Their five daughters, who were also in the car, were injured, two of them critically.

The couple's eldest son was not in the car at the time of the attack.

A previously unknown group called the "Intifada Martyrs" claimed responsibility for the attack, in a statement faxed to AFP in Beirut.

The movement said in the statement that its commandos "ambushed Israeli occupation forces near the Ofra settlement near Nablus and opened fire on a vehicle carrying settlers."

It made no mention of the victims' identities.

Yesterday, the Israeli army shot dead an official in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement as he walked near his home in the West Bank, a faction source said.

The official, Thabet Thabet, was director-general of the Palestinian health ministry in the Fatah-headed town of Tulkarem.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak yesterday urged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to accept a set of proposals by US President Bill Clinton which sought to forge a peace deal between the two sides.

"I hope Arafat will give a positive response" to the Clinton plan, Barak told a Israeli state radio.

Barak had conditionally accepted the Clinton plan, saying Israel would agree to it if Arafat also signed the plan.

The Palestinians, meanwhile, have asked the Clinton administration for clarification on the proposals.

Barak reiterated that he would not accept Palestinian sovereignty, as the plan recommended, over the disputed Temple Mount, a site holy to Muslims and Jews. -- Sapa-AFP