Deadly Gunfire Mars Israeli Election

In an election-day attack, two Palestinian gunmen opened fire Thursday at a Likud Party office and at passengers in a nearby bus terminal in the northern Israeli town of Beit Shean. Five Israelis were killed and dozens wounded in the attack.

The gunmen were killed in an ensuing firefight with police, security guards and armed bystanders. Initial witness reports said a third gunmen fled to a nearby building but searchers did not find anyone else.

The shootings occurred the same day three suicide bombers attacked an Israeli-owned resort hotel in Kenya, killing 12 other people, and at least two missiles were fired at, but missed, an Israeli airliner taking off from an airport in nearby Mombasa, Kenya.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the Beit Shean attack, which marred voting in the Likud party primary.

The injured included three sons of David Levy, a former Israeli foreign minister and a top Likud official. One of the sons, Jackie Levy, told Army Radio from the hospital that he saw the gunmen throw at least two grenades toward the crowd.

"I saw the two terrorists getting out of a car, throwing grenades and charging with their guns," he said. "They managed to change magazines a number of times."

Three empty ammunition clips were found at the scene, Army Radio said. A full clip usually holds about 30 bullets.

The mayor of Beit Shean, Pini Caballo, said five Israelis were killed.

"They fired hundreds of bullets," Caballo told Israel Radio. "They went to the Likud branch and saw the crowds and fired in all directions and hit many people."

Rafi Ben-Shetreet, the Likud leader in Beit Shean, said he and others standing at the entrance to the party office heard what sounded like two grenade blasts followed by bursts of shooting. One of the attackers was killed by a security guard, he said.

One of the dead gunman wore an explosives belt that did not detonate, police said. Authorities also were checking whether a stolen car found in the area was carrying explosives.

In a phone call to The Associated Press, the Al Aqsa militia said the attack was a response to the deaths of two militia leaders in an explosion in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin earlier in the week. The militia has blamed Israel for the deaths, though Israel denied involvement.

Thursday's attack came as Likud Party members throughout Israel were voting in a leadership contest between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Likud officials said the vote would not be called off. Sharon is favored to win the race.

It is not clear how the attacks at home and abroad would affect the Likud vote.

The race is widely expected to determine who will be Israel's next prime minister, as polls among the general public show the rightist bloc of parties led by Likud likely to emerge from the Jan. 28 vote with a majority in the Knesset.

In Israel, some 300,000 Likud members are eligible to vote at 678 polling stations throughout the country, and TV projections and early results were expected soon after balloting ends at 10 p.m. (3 p.m. EST). Observers were predicting at least half of those eligible would vote.

Netanyahu, a former prime minister, has blasted Sharon for agreeing, even in principle, to an eventual Palestinian state in parts of the West Bank and Gaza, and says Sharon's efforts to crush a two-year Palestinian uprising have not been forceful enough. He also calls for expelling Yasser Arafat -- a move Sharon has refrained from ordering despite his boycott of the Palestinian leader.

Netanyahu was once considered the darling of Likud's constituency and practically a shoo-in for a return to the prime minister's position, which he held from 1996-1999.

But he appears to have been outmaneuvered in recent weeks after the breakup of Sharon's coalition government with the moderate Labor Party. Sharon brought Netanyahu into his Cabinet as foreign minister a position from which he risked appearing disloyal each time he criticized Sharon's policies.

By Thursday, it appeared that even many of Netanyahu's activists had given up hope and were aiming mainly to ensure Sharon's margin of victory was lower than the 20-point lead he has enjoyed in recent polls.

"According to reports from the field, if there is a gap between the two candidates, it will be much smaller'" than in the opinion polls, said Netanyahu political adviser Haim Bashari.

Responding to the Kenya attacks, Netanyahu warned that other nations' airliners could be targeted next.

"Today they're firing the missiles at Israeli planes," Netanyahu, who has long called for a global campaign against terror, told reporters. `"Tomorrow they'll fire missiles at American planes, British planes, every country's aircraft."

Sharon, voting at a polling station near his sheep farm in southern Israel, said officials were still checking the details of the attacks and urged "all Likud members to fulfill their obligation and vote for the prime minister who will lead Israel four the next four years."

The winner of Thursday's race will face Labor's Amram Mitzna, a dovish former general who won his party's primary last week, unseating former party chief Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who for 20 months served as Sharon's defense minister.