Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 22 January 2004 — Israeli prosecutors are considering whether to indict Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on corruption after a court charged a businessman yesterday with trying to bribe him in the 1990s, a Justice Ministry source said.

The source said prosecutors would decide within months whether to charge Sharon — a move that would almost certainly force from office the right-wing former general who has won popularity for tough measures against a Palestinian uprising.

An Israeli court indicted property developer David Appel earlier yesterday on charges of trying to bribe Sharon when he was foreign minister in the late 1990s, sparking opposition calls for his resignation.

Sharon, 75, has denied any wrongdoing in a string of corruption scandals that have failed to seriously dent his popularity.

But mounting legal troubles could threaten his support in Israel and weaken his hand in seeking a peace arrangement with Palestinians. Sharon, if indicted, would likely be charged along with his son, Gilad, and Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a close ally in the ruling Likud party.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers destroying houses in a Palestinian refugee camp on the Gaza-Egypt border yesterday shot and killed a woman and critically wounded a boy, residents said.

Soldiers moved into the Rafah refugee camp and destroyed five more structures, after knocking down 25 the day before, residents said. The military said the mission was to destroy a tunnel used by Palestinians to smuggle in weapons.

During yesterday’s operation, soldiers exchanged gunfire with Palestinian militants. Mona Ismail, 31, a bystander, was shot in the head and died in a hospital, doctors said. Her sister and another relative, a 13-year-old boy, were also wounded as the three were standing close to their home.

An 11-year-old boy was critically wounded when Israeli troops fired machine guns as cover for bulldozers demolishing houses, witnesses and doctors said.