Despite signals from the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, that he might be ready to return to the negotiating table with Israel, violence continued in the West Bank and Gaza Strip yesterday, with two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinians killed in clashes.
The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, informed the acting Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shlomo Ben-Ami, late on Wednesday night that Mr Arafat had told her that he wanted to bring an end to the two-months of violent confrontation and to renew the stalled Middle East peace talks. "If there is anything real in this," said Mr Ben-Ami yesterday, "it could be that there is a certain signalling of [Palestinian] distress and a desire to get out of this cycle. It is our obligation to allow the Americans to check out this thing."
Yesterday morning, Turkey's Foreign Minister, who is visiting Israel, delivered a similar message to diplomatic officials in Jerusalem. But the initial reaction by Israeli diplomatic sources was distinctly chilly. Mr Arafat, they charged, had made similar statements in the past but the violence had nevertheless continued on the ground.
Mr Nabil Sha'ath, the Minister for International Co-operation, clarified the Palestinian position, saying Mr Arafat would be ready to return to the table if Israel ceased its attacks on his people and if it reversed its decision to seal off the occupied territories. For his part, Mr Arafat sounded anything but conciliatory. "The Palestinian people are strong and ready for anything, in case Israel causes a deterioration of the situation," he said after returning from a meeting in Egypt with President Hosni Mubarak.
The Americans yesterday launched a renewed effort to halt the violence. A plan being floated by Ms Albright reportedly calls for a buffer zone between Palestinians and Israeli forces and a new mechanism for dialogue.
On the ground, casualties continued to mount yesterday. Fighting was particularly fierce in Gaza where gun battles raged throughout the day. An Israeli soldier, Eduard Mechnik (21), was killed when an explosive device detonated in a joint Palestinian-Israeli liaison office in southern Gaza. Another Israeli soldier, Samer Hussein (19), was killed when Palestinian snipers opened fire on an army patrol near the Erez checkpoint at the northern end of the Gaza Strip.
Following the attack on the liaison office, the Israeli army issued orders for Palestinians to leave all such offices located in the West Bank and Gaza.
"The Palestinian side," said an incensed Israeli army spokesman, "carried out a despicable attack on army people with whom they had worked side-by-side over the past seven years."
A member of the Islamic militant Hamas movement was killed yesterday in the West Bank town of Nablus in mysterious circumstances. Palestinians said that Ibrahim Bani Odeh was assassinated when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at his car. Israeli military sources insisted they knew nothing of the rocket attack and suggested Mr Bani Odeh, who spent two years in a Palestinian jail on suspicion of manufacturing bombs, had died in a "work accident", while preparing an explosive device. A second Palestinian was killed in an exchange of gunfire with Israeli troops in northern Gaza during the morning.