Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon beat Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for control of the Likud Party on Thursday in a primary overshadowed by a deadly shooting at a polling station in Israel and two attacks on Israeli tourists in Kenya, television projections showed. Projections on Israel TV showed Sharon with 61 percent of the vote, compared to 37 percent for Netanyahu. Two other television projections showed similar results.

Sharon will now face the Labor Party's Amram Mitzna, a former general, in Jan. 28 general elections, which polls predict Likud will win because of the Israeli public's shift to the right following two years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

Thursday's election was overshadowed by a deadly shooting in the northern Israeli town of Beit Shean, in which two Palestinian resistance men fired on a Likud office crowded with Israelis casting votes. Six people were killed and dozens wounded before the attackers were shot dead.

Earlier in the day, in near simultaneous attacks, three suicide bombers killed three Israelis and nine Kenyans at an Israeli-owned seaside hotel north of Mombasa, Kenya, and assailants fired two missiles at a chartered airliner carrying Israeli tourists home from a beach holiday. No one on board was injured and the plane landed safely at Israel's Ben Gurion airport.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon votes in a Likud party primary election to decide whether Sharon or his archrival Benjamin Netanyahu will lead the party into January elections, near Sharon's ranch, in Sderot, Israel, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2002. With polls showing Likud far ahead of the opposition Labor party, the winner of the Likud primary has a good chance of emerging as the winner of the election on Jan. 28, 2003. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)