Sharon Is Visitor to Gaza Strip

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon traveled to the Gaza Strip on Friday to visit with Israeli troops in the volatile region, while government forces and Palestinians clashed in a nearby part of Gaza.

Sharon took a quick military tour of Gush Katif, a collection of Jewish settlements in the southern Gaza Strip, his office said. The settlements have come under frequent attack by Palestinian gunmen and from militants firing mortars.

Meanwhile, shooting erupted in nearby Rafah, a Palestinian town at the southern end of Gaza along the border with Egypt. Eight Palestinians were wounded, four of them seriously, according to doctors at the town hospital.

It was not clear where Sharon was when the shooting broke out, although the southern end of Gush Katif is less than a mile from Rafah.

Also Friday, Israeli police stopped a car entering Israel from the West Bank, overpowered two Palestinians inside and found a powerful bomb that weighed 22 pounds, police said.

After the car was stopped, police evacuated the Israeli Arab town of Baqa al Gharbiya. A bomb-disposal robot then fired four bullets at the bomb, exploding it on the main street. There were no injuries.

Police said the two men arrested belong to the militant group Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for many bombings.

Meanwhile, a poll published Friday in the Maariv daily indicated that about half of Israelis favor tougher military measures against the Palestinians, an increase from a poll a week earlier.

The Gallup Poll showed that 51% of the Israelis surveyed believed that their army is not using enough force against the Palestinians. Only 17% felt that too much force is being used, and 24% said the present level is correct.

The poll questioned 593 Israeli adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.