The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, and the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, last night reached, but by press time failed to sign a "limited" ceasefire agreement, aimed at putting an end to a week of fighting. The conflict has cost the lives of at least 50 Palestinians, 10 Israeli Arabs, three soldiers and an Israeli Jew.
After a day of bitter negotiations in Paris brokered by the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright - who at one point reportedly told her security people to prevent Mr Arafat from walking out of the US ambassador's residence in a fit of anger - the warring leaders had been set to initial a ceasefire deal. But Mr Arafat was reportedly delaying his signature and did not return to the embassy for the initialling as scheduled.
If the deal has been initialled, the leaders are to fly to Egypt today for further talks and a full signing ceremony.
Under the agreement Israel would withdraw the tanks and other forces it has sent into the West Bank and Gaza in the past week and open fire only when soldiers' lives are in danger, Palestinian police would keep demonstrators away from the main flashpoints, and CIA officials would help commanders on the ground try to rebuild their shattered liaison structures.
Absent from the pact - and the main source of friction in yesterday's talks - are the provisions Mr Arafat was seeking for an international commission of inquiry into the violence and the deployment of international peacekeepers.
Fury at the mounting Palestinian death toll is growing throughout the Arab world. In rare accord with his neighbours, the Iraqi President, Mr Saddam Hussein, offered to "put an end to Zionism". All he needed, he said, "was a small piece of land adjacent" to Israel, and he could "do it alone".
The fighting raged on at the now familiar flashpoints in the territories. A nine-year-old boy, Mohammed Assi, was killed at Netzarim in Gaza, where the Israeli army again employed assault helicopters firing missiles; two Palestinians were killed overnight outside Ramallah; two more died from wounds sustained in fighting.
There were exchanges of fire around the Joseph's Tomb enclave in Nablus - an isolated position which the army is now considering evacuating. Shooting erupted in Bethlehem last night outside another, more venerated, Jewish religious site: Rachel's Tomb. There were clashes, too, in Hebron and Tulkarm, but in some areas uniformed Palestinian policemen were clearly trying to rein in their people.
The Hamas Islamic movement has branded tomorrow a "day of rage" and is threatening a bombing to avenge each and every Palestinian fatality.