Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat yesterday nominated Mr Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala), the Speaker of the Palestinian parliament, to succeed Mr Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) as prime minister. David Horovitz in Jerusalem.
Mr Qurei, whose nomination was approved last night by the executive committee of the PLO, has yet to respond. The Israeli government has indicated that it will not deal with any prime minister it perceives as an Arafat lackey.
The Bush administration said yesterday it blamed Mr Arafat for Saturday's resignation of the former prime minister, Mr Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), a possibly fatal blow to the US- and Europe-backed "road map" to peace and Palestinian statehood.
But while several Israeli leaders are now demanding that Mr Arafat be expelled from the West Bank, senior US officials cautioned against such a move, instead urging Mr Arafat to relinquish control of the Palestinian security forces to Mr Abbas's successor, whoever that may be, so that Hamas and other extremist groups can be combated and a diplomatic path reopened.
Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, meanwhile, vowed to continue the pursuit of all leaders of Hamas, following the failure of an Israeli attempt on Saturday to wipe out most of the top Hamas leadership in an F-16 bombing of an apartment in Gaza City.
The bombing destroyed the top floor of the building where Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas spiritual leader, was meeting with a group of about 10 colleagues including the two most notorious Hamas bombmakers. But the talks were taking place on a lower floor, and the participants emerged almost unscathed.
Sheikh Yassin issued what sounded like a personal threat of revenge against Mr Sharon, declaring to thousands of supporters at a nearby mosque that the Israeli Prime Minister "has to understand that he will pay the price for all his crimes, and the Israeli people will pay a high price as well".
Amid the media scrum outside his home yesterday, with thousands of Gazans gathering to show support and demand revenge, the paraplegic sheikh vowed that his people would "never surrender".
Police stepped up security inside Israel yesterday, deploying at bus stops, schools and innumerable other potential target areas. Security was tightened around political leaders. And the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip was closed off from Israel. Mr Sharon said yesterday that all Hamas leaders remained "marked for death". Interviewed on television, the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said the US did not back such action, adding that Israel needed to ask itself "Are you creating more Hamas killers in the future?" Mr Powell also said he opposed any Israeli move to expel Mr Arafat "at this time".
Mr Abbas, who blamed Mr Arafat, the US and especially Israel for providing insufficient support for his efforts to foster a new era of tranquility, insisted yesterday that his resignation was final.
Israel has said it will have no dealings with a Palestinian government effectively controlled by Mr Arafat, and Mr Powell said flatly that the US would not negotiate with him. Ms Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Adviser, described Mr Arafat as "an obstacle to peace".