Israeli occupation troops killed a 16-year-old Palestinian stone-thrower in the West Bank's Aida refugee camp Friday and wounded two others as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's scandal-plagued election campaign faced mounting problems on Friday after a news conference in which he denied wrongdoing and assailed his main rival was yanked off the air. Tareq Abu Jawdu, was killed during a clash in the Aida refugee camp in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Doctors at Beit Jalla Hospital said the boy was shot in the abdomen and two others were lightly wounded.

Occupation army sources claimed that their troops used riot dispersal gear to deter stone throwers who were hampering workers building a security fence between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Israeli occupation soldiers also demolished the home of Darin Abu Aisheh, a resistance bomber, in a West Bank village near the city of Nablus. The woman set off explosives inside a car at an Israeli occupation army checkpoint last February, killing herself and wounding three policemen.

The occupation army also shut down three West Bank liaison offices where Palestinian security officers once consulted with Israeli counterparts. It called their continued operation pointless.

The District Coordinating Office in the West Bank city of Jericho was the only one still functioning under interim peace deals shattered by the Israeli re-occupation of Palestinian territories.

Sharon's Election Campaign Faces Mounting Problems

Before the news conference was cut off, Sharon charged that Labour and its supporters had, for political motives, spread "vicious gossip" about him, his family and the Likud.

Sharon denied any wrongdoing in connection with the DLRS. 1.5 million loan that his son, Gilad, received from Cape Town businessman Cyril Kern, a long-time family friend. Israeli law bans political funding from abroad.

The money was used as collateral to help Sharon repay what Israeli authorities determined had been an improper foreign contribution to his 1999 campaign to be elected Likud leader.

"I didn't know exactly where the money came from," he said, pledging to answer all questions in a police probe now underway.

The decision to pull the plug on Sharon's prime-time speech was an embarrassment for him three weeks before an election, which until days ago he had seemed on course to win easily.

Election commission chairman Mishael Heshin, a supreme court judge, accused Sharon of using the speech to campaign in violation of election rules which strictly limit air time.

Three newspaper opinion surveys conducted after the loan scandal broke this week showed Likud winning between 27 and 30 seats -- down from as many as 41 in one previous poll -- in the 120-member parliament.

The polls indicated Sharon could still form a right-wing coalition controlling 61 parliamentary seats.

But, according to analysts, a narrow majority could lead Sharon to seek a broader coalition including centrist and left-wing partners likely to push for a softer line toward the Palestinians.

Hamas Urges Iraq to Use Kamikaze-Style Bombers

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas has meanwhile urged Iraq on Friday to copy its tactics and send thousands of attackers with explosives strapped to their bodies into a battle against the West.

Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi told about 2,000 people in the impoverished shanty Jambalaya refugee camp that Iraq should train and outfit cells of Kamikaze attackers with "thousands of highly explosive belts" to fight American and British troops in Iraq.

PHOTO CAPTION
Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, right, makes a speech as his bodyguard looks on during a demonstration in the Jambalaya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Jan. 10, 2003. (AP Photo/Murad