Sharon (L) beat Netanyahu (R) by 15 percentage points

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, November 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been re-elected as head of the right-wing Likud Party, beating his main rival Foreign Secretary Benjamin Netanyahu by 15 percentage points, according to official results released early Friday, November 29.

Sharon won 55.8 percent of the party members' votes against 40.8 percent for Netanyahu and 3.4 percent for extreme-right candidate Moshe Feiglin, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Only 46 percent of Likud's 305,000 members bothered to vote in Thursday's party primary election.

The voting took place against the backdrop of anti-Israeli attacks in Kenya which killed 12 people including three Israelis.

After the vote Sharon vowed to avenge the deaths and called on Likud members to redouble their efforts to win the legislative elections to be held in January 2003.

Several exit polls broadcast as Likud's 678 ballot boxes closed Thursday evening, November 28, had Sharon comfortably re-elected as the Likud leader beating Foreign Minister Netanyahu by a margin of at least 17 percentage points.

The official results were not due to be published until early Friday, but Netanyahu, acknowledging defeat, called for his party to unite behind Sharon.

"We have to unite behind Ariel Sharon so we can eradicate 'terrorism' at the head of the next government," he said.

Sharon himself gave a muted victory speech, saying: "After a day like today, it’s difficult for me to say I'm excited."

With only two hours to go until the polls closed, voter turnout was noticeably low, with only 30 percent showing up to vote following the earlier shooting attack on a polling station.

Six Israelis, including a Likud central committee member were killed when Palestinian resistance activists sprayed automatic gunfire and hurled grenades at a polling station in the northern town of Beit Shean. Two of the activists were also shot dead by police.

The operation was claimed by the armed offshoot of the resistance Fatah movement, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and was condemned by the Palestinian leadership which issued a statement extending condolences to the families of the victims.

Meanwhile, an Israeli military plane carrying the bodies of the three Israelis killed in Thursday's bombing in Kenya, left Mombasa airport early Friday, Israel public radio reported.

Also on the flight were six of those lightly wounded in the attack, and the families of the dead, the radio said.

Another six injured Israelis were still being treated in hospital in Mombasa, while the remaining Israeli tourists were waiting at the airport to be taken back to Israel.

Fifteen people died in the deadly attack in which a vehicle burst through a barrier around the Paradise Mombasa hotel on the Indian Ocean coast and rammed through the front entrance, exploding in the lobby.

A third suspect has been arrested over the car bombing, police spokesman King'ori Mwangi said Friday.

"The three, all foreigners of Arab origin, are being held for questioning," King'ori told AFP by telephone.

Early Friday morning, a score of Israeli investigators arrived at the large hotel complex, as did three U.S. officials who proceeded to photograph the cordoned-off compound and a Kenyan team which pored over the debris.

Meanwhile, a charter plane of Israel's Arkia airlines carrying 261 passengers came under attack from two missiles as it took off from Mombasa. They narrowly missed and the plane arrived safely in Israel.  

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