5 soldiers killed in Israeli base blast

In a coordinated assault, Palestinian gunmen rushed the base after what appeared to be two blasts. Soldiers fired back and two Palestinians were killed.

Hitting back, Israeli helicopters fired at least five missiles at targets in Gaza City early Monday, witnesses said. One missile set fire to an abandoned metal workshop, while the other target was an empty house near the Islamic University, they said.

In Nablus a leader of Hamas' armed wing was killed and three Israeli soldiers injured in a shoot-out in the northern West Bank town, Israeli and Palestinian security sources said.

The Islamist movement said in a statement that the "martyred" Ihssan Shawahneh had been the head of its Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades in the northern West Bank.

The 28-year-old Shawahneh was shot dead during an exchange of gunfire with the troops, according to the Palestinian sources.

An Israeli military source said Shawahneh was wanted for organising suicide attacks against Israeli targets. He was killed after opening fire on troops who had come to arrest him, wounding three soldiers in the process.

Also Sunday, imprisoned Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti said in a letter that he was dropping out of the Jan. 9 election to replace Arafat and threw his support to mainstream candidate Mahmoud Abbas. The move rids Abbas of his strongest rival and wards off what could have been a split in the leading Fatah faction of the PLO.

For his part, Abbas who has stepped in as interim Palestinian leader until the elections apologised to Kuwaitis for Palestinian support of Saddam Hussein during the 1990-1991 Gulf War his latest gesture to mend fences with Arab nations offended by Arafat.

"Yes, we apologise for what we have done," he said after arriving in Kuwait, responding to reporters' questions about many Kuwaitis' long-standing demands for an apology.