Netanyahu accepts offer to join Israeli government

The hardline former Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu yesterday agreed to join Ariel Sharon's government as Foreign Minister, on condition that Mr Sharon calls early elections. But sources close to Mr Sharon last night dismissed the offer as "political trickery".

If Mr Netanyahu joins the government, his appointment would damage what little is left of the peace process. He has publicly declared his opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state, which the US says should be part of a peace settlement.

Mr Sharon is trying to woo far right parties, some of which advocate expelling all Palestinians from the West Bank,into joining a new coalition government.

It is not clear whether Mr Sharon will accept Mr Netanyahu's terms. He offered the former premier a post in order to defuse a challenge from Mr Netanyahu for the leadership of the Likud Party, calculating he would be politically damaged if he turned the foreign ministry down.

By insisting on early elections Mr Netanyahu is trying to keep his leadership challenge alive.

News of Mr Netanyahu's offer came hours before Amnesty International publishes a report today which accuses the Israeli military of crimes against humanity and war crimes in its operations in Jenin and Nablus earlier this year, and calls on the international community to bring those responsible to justice.

Last week Scotland Yard opened an investigation into another new minister, Lieutenant-General Shaul Mofaz, on allegations of war crimes. Lt-Gen Mofaz, who was head of the Israeli army until his retirement in July, over the weekend agreed to become Defence Minister.

Today's Amnesty report includes detailed evidence that Israeli soldiers unlawfully killed Palestinians civilians, blocked medical access to the wounded, used Palestinians as human shields, tortured prisoners, and unnecessarily destroyed civilian houses.

Many of these crimes are not isolated incidents, says Amnesty, but "committed in a widespread and systematic manner, in pursuit of government policy", which means they could be regarded as crimes against humanity under the statute of the newly formed international criminal court.

In addition to the already widely known witness accounts of atrocities committed by the Israeli army in Jenin in April, Amnesty's report describes similar crimes committed at the same time in another West Bank city, Nablus.

Among the dead in Nablus were eight members of a single family, the al-Shu'bis, who were buried alive when Israeli soldiers bulldozed their house on top of them, including three children, their pregnant mother and their 85-year-old grandmother. The soldiers continued to demolish the house even though neighbours told them people were inside.

Even more damning, the report says that in spite of the international outcry at Israeli military tactics in April, the army has continued to commit war crimes.

It cites the case of two children, six-year-old Ahmad Ghazawi and his 12-year-old brother, Jamil, killed in Jenin in June after they went on to the streets believing a curfew had been lifted. An Israeli tank fired at them. The Israeli army later told Amnesty the curfew was still in place. Amnesty has seen video footage of the killings and says there was no fighting at the time.