| Hamas gunmen killed four Israeli soldiers in the first successful attack into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. The two gunmen disguised as police officers attacked the army post outside the kibbutz of Kerem Shalom, across the border from Rafah, before being gunned down themselves by the Israeli army. All four soldiers killed, including an officer, were Bedouin Arabs serving in the Israeli army. The army commander of southern Israel, General Doron Almog, accused Salah Shahadeh, a close associate of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassine, of planning the attack and demanded that the Palestinian Authority arrest him. The PA leadership condemned the attack and vowed to crack down on any violation of the ceasefire ordered by Arafat. "We do not accept under any pretext this violation of our national decision to decree the ceasefire and we will act against any damage to our security," it said in a statement. Facts of life, Middle East style: Any kind of a peace will be harmful to the "clergy" and political hacks who control the snuffies. If peace were to come about through some accident, the justification for their funding would go away. The hard boys themselves come cheap and they're disposable, but it takes a lot of money from "charitable donations" to buy all those arms and ammunition, even more to keep the top leadership living in the style to which they've become accustomed. |