MIDDLE EAST: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reached a deal with Shimon Peres yesterday to name the opposition leader his senior deputy, clearing a key obstacle to a unity government able to abandon the occupied Gaza Strip.
To end legal wrangling over titles, Mr Sharon and Mr Peres agreed that the Labour leader and veteran peacemaker would be the most senior "deputy to the prime minister" in the new coalition.
But the ruling Likud's Mr Ehud Olmert would keep his position as the real next-in-line to Mr Sharon with the title of "acting prime minister".
Meanwhile, an Israeli drone fired a missile at Palestinian militants in the southern Gaza Strip last night, killing four, witnesses said.
The air strike came during a day-long Israel military raid on Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, in which troops have killed five other Palestinians, including three militants and two teenagers.
The Israeli army said the raid was launched to stop a recent barrage of mortar and rocket fire at neighbouring Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Two of the militants killed belonged to an armed faction of Palestinian leader Mr Mahmoud Abbas's mainstream Fatah.
In an earlier incident, two people were hurt by debris when Israeli soldiers blew up a house in Khan Younis after dark, witnesses said.