Rare Incident On Israel-Syria Border

Israeli troops traded gunfire Wednesday with a small group of armed men who crossed into the Golan Heights from Syria, killing one of the men and capturing another.

It was a rare incident of violence on the Israel-Syria border, though the two countries are bitter enemies. The last reported infiltration was in September 2001, when Israeli soldiers found a bag of weapons and explosives on the Israeli side of the border, though the infiltrator apparently escaped back into Syria.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Wednesday denounced reports that he is under investigation for receiving $1.5 million from a South Africa-based businessman, calling it slander designed to prevent his re-election.

The Haaretz daily reported Tuesday that Sharon and his son Gilad were under police investigation over funds received from Cyril Kern, who has been a close friend since the 1948 war that established the Jewish state.

Israel's attorney general confirmed Wednesday that Israel has asked South Africa for assistance in the case.

That is a major blow to Sharon, whose Likud party has lost more than 20 percent of its support in the wake of a separate bribery scandal, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger. Sharon's aides say the allegations are lies. They say the leak was well-timed, to hurt the Prime Minister just three weeks before elections.

Also Wednesday, two Israeli Arab politicians appealed to Israel's Supreme Court, after they were barred from running in elections coming up in three weeks.

The two Arab Knesset members, Azmi Bishara and Ahmed Tibi, were barred from the elections on grounds that they made statements supporting Palestinian terrorism. They told Israel's supreme court the allegations are false.

"I always opposed, I always spoke against any notion of targeting civilians," said Bishara.

Supporters of the ban say the Arab parliamentarians are using Israeli democracy to undermine the state.

European Union envoy Miguel Moratinos said he would pressure Israel to overturn a Cabinet decision to prevent Palestinian officials from going to London next week to hold talks on reforms demanded by the United States as a precursor to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israel made the decision after a twin Palestinian suicide attack killed 22 people in Tel Aviv.

After meeting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Moratinos said the European Union had asked the Palestinian Authority to "declare an unconditional and total cease-fire to put an end to this senseless cycle of violence" after Sunday's Tel Aviv suicide bombing, but he opposed Israel's retaliatory measures.

"I'm going to ask the Israelis to allow the Palestinian personalities to go to London. The British consulate is also trying with the Israelis, so we'll see what happens," Moratinos told reporters.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo was confident the delegation would be headed to London in the coming days. "Any delay will cause negative effects and will not help create an appropriate atmosphere for talks or negotiations," he said.

Israel controls Palestinian travel and decides who can and cannot leave the country. So far, Israel has withstood European pressure to overturn the Cabinet's decision and the United States has avoided pressuring Israel publicly on the issue.

Regarding the Syrian border incident, "one of our foot patrols on daytime patrol on our side of the border was fired upon," Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon told reporters while accompanying Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on a tour of the boundary with the West Bank. "It returned fire, killing one armed man and took another armed man who surrendered."

A third gunman retreated into Syria, Israel Radio said. Israeli troops also came under small-arms fire from gunmen on the Syrian side of the border, but did not return fire, military sources said. The incident occurred east of the Sea of Galilee in the southern Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and later annexed.

Earlier, troops shot dead two Palestinians in separate incidents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza, troops killed a Palestinian taxi driver who was watching Israeli tanks moving through the area when he was shot, Palestinian witnesses said.

The army said soldiers were removing bushes used by militants as cover when firing on troops. Gunmen attacked the force with anti-tank missiles, gunfire and grenades and soldiers returned fire but did not know if they had hit anyone, the army added.

Israeli forces have been carrying out operations in Gaza and the West Bank almost every night, arresting suspected militants or destroying structures. Early Tuesday, three Palestinians were killed in a fierce exchange of fire between gunmen and Israeli forces in the same area.

In the West Bank village of Seide, Israeli troops demolished a two-story house belonging to a suspected militant. In the morning, residents went to look at the rubble and troops in the house fired to disperse the onlookers, killing 17-year-old Ahmed Ajaj, who was among a crowd of people chanting "Allahu Akbar," God is great, Palestinian witnesses said.

The army said that Palestinian gunmen opened fire on troops while they were carrying out an operation in the village. The troops returned fire and killed a "terrorist," the army said.

In Seide village, Israeli troops blew up a house belonging to Osama Ashkar, a militant with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group loosely affiliated with Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Twelve people lived in the house, Palestinian officials said.

Ashkar was responsible for dispatching a gunman who killed five people, including a mother and her two young sons, in a shooting rampage on an Israeli kibbutz, the army said. He also planned and provided weapons for a separate attack on a Jewish settlement in the West Bank in which three Israelis were killed, the army added.

Israel routinely demolishes the homes of militants and suspected militants in an attempt to deter Palestinians from carrying out attacks on Israelis. Palestinians condemn the measure and say it violates international law.