'Should Have Killed Arafat'

Israel should have killed Yasser Arafat 20 years ago, while he was under Israeli siege in Beirut, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview published Thursday.

Sharon said he was "sorry we didn't liquidate him," but added that Arafat could yet become a partner for peace if he cracked down on Palestinian militants.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat told CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger he believes Sharon plans to finish the job now.

"I'm sure this man's end game is to destroy the peace process and to destroy and kill President Arafat," he said, "and I hope to God that those policy makers in Washington will realize what kind of man Sharon is."

Also Thursday, a top official acknowledged the Israeli government never formally adopted the so-called Mitchell Report, a U.S.-backed plan for restarting Mideast peace talks that would require Israel to freeze settlements activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In the Gaza Strip, two militants detonated a roadside bomb and opened fire on a truck carrying Thai farm hands to Jewish settlements. Soldiers escorting the truck returned fire, killing the assailants, the army said. The truck was damaged, but the workers were not injured. The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility.

A 17-year-old Palestinian wounded last week by Israeli army fire died of his injuries Thursday, doctors said. The teen-ager was shot while throwing stones at tanks near Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Sharon told the Maariv daily that Israel should have killed Arafat during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Sharon was defense minister at the time, and led the push to drive Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization out of Lebanon.

"In Lebanon, there was an agreement not to liquidate Yasser Arafat," Sharon told Maariv. "In principle, I'm sorry that we didn't liquidate him."

Overnight, Israeli soldiers arrested two Hamas members in a Palestinian-controlled area of Ramallah and near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, the Israeli military said. Israel accuses the Palestinian Authority of doing little to prevent attacks on Israelis by Palestinian militants, and says Israeli troops have to step in to track down militants.

The militant Islamic Jihad group said Wednesday it would carry out more attacks against Israelis. The group took responsibility for a bombing earlier in the day that wounded two officers from Israel's Shin Bet security service and killed the Palestinian attacker, a former informer for Israel.

"We will continue with ur jihad and operations, more strikes in the Zionist depth are coming, God willing," the group said in a statement. Islamic Jihad and Hamas have carried out dozens of bombings and suicide attacks during the current conflict, which started in September 2000.

In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak said after a meeting Wednesday with Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer that his country must maintain contacts with Israel since the Israelis and Palestinians are no longer talking to one another. "The Palestinians are under siege and the (Israelis) are in trouble," Mubarak said. "We agreed to remain in contact until a solution is found."

Palestinian Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qureia was to travel to Washington for a meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday.

Qureia was to meet Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in New York on Thursday to try to work out an understanding on a cease-fire and the eventual resumption of peace talks, Israel TV's Channel Two reported.

The Palestinians said they were going to Washington to clarify their position, as the U.S. administration grows less sympathetic to their cause.

Their mission will precede Sharon's trip to Washington to meet President Bush on Feb. 7, his fourth visit to the White House. Arafat has yet to receive an invitation.

Arafat remains virtually trapped in Ramallah, with Israeli tanks parked about 70 yards from his compound.

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