THE MIDDLE EAST: Israeli troops killed three armed Palestinians in Gaza and a 10-year-old boy who was apparently trying to catch birds in a restricted area near the Israel-Gaza border yesterday.
The latest deaths came as a new opinion poll confirmed a fall in the popularity of Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon. The prime minister won the approval of only one third of respondents in the poll.
The boy who died, Mahmoud al-Qayed, was attempting to catch birds with a net and string near the border fence when he was hit by a tank shell. The Israeli army said soldiers fired at "suspicious figures" who it said were handling an electric cable in a closed zone where bombs have often been planted in the past.
Overnight, troops killed two Palestinians from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who it said were planting explosives near the town of Khan Younis, and a third man, a Hamas member, after a bomb exploded near an army patrol at the Maghazi refugee camp.
In Jenin, meanwhile, troops captured Amajdi Ubeidi, an Islamic Jihad commander who it alleges organised last month's suicide bombing of Haifa's Maxim restaurant, in which 21 Israelis were killed.
Also yesterday, Israel began a promised easing of restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank, removing a roadblock west of Ramallah that was erected in February 2002 after Palestinian gunmen killed six soldiers guarding what had been a more rudimentary checkpoint.
The relentless violence, absence of diplomatic progress, and disquiet over some government policies, including an imminent prisoner exchange, are plainly contributing to Mr Sharon's falling popularity. The prime minister was re-elected with an overwhelming majority at the start of the year, but his performance was approved by only 34 per cent of respondents to yesterday's poll in Ma'ariv newspaper, compared with an already disappointing 40 per cent approval rating just two weeks ago.
Israelis recognise that the Palestinian Authority currently lacks a permanent government with which Mr Sharon could negotiate; Mr Ahmed Korei, the emergency prime minister, is still arguing with PA President Yasser Arafat over the composition of his cabinet. But a general strike is looming, the economy is in freefall, Mr Sharon has prompted criticism first by announcing his plans to "remove" Mr Arafat and then by contradicting himself.
The cabinet will tomorrow vote on the planned prisoner exchange deal with Hizbullah, under which Israel would free 400 Palestinian prisoners, 20 Lebanese, and 20 Jordanians, in return for the release of a captured businessman and the bodies of three soldiers.