An Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire deal, which was supposed to bring quiet to the fraught region on Jerusalem's southern edge and prompt the Israeli army's withdrawal from Palestinian territory there, appeared to have collapsed last night before it ever took effect.
The "truce", reached between the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, and the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, with European mediation, involved Mr Arafat ensuring a halt to Palestinian fire on Israeli homes in Gilo, and Israel pulling out the troops it had sent to confront the gunmen in the Palestinian town of Beit Jala.
Yesterday afternoon, Mr Peres was happily predicting the deal would enable the army, "which has carried out its mission in Beit Jala, to come home. Jerusalem will sleep safely". And "more serious talks" to widen the ceasefire, he said, might begin next week.
But as night fell, shots again rang out from Beit Jala towards Gilo, Israel returned fire, the exchanges intensified, and there were clashes, too, between Israeli and Palestinian forces inside Beit Jala itself. Israeli military spokesmen indicated the army seemed likely to be spending a third night in parts of Beit Jala.
Late yesterday, a member of Mr Arafat's elite guards unit, Force 17, died in Hebron shortly after being shot by Israeli forces in the centre of the West Bank city, Palestinian sources said.
The Force 17 member, Mr Abud Dabassi (32), died at Ahli hospital in Hebron, while 15 others were injured in the fighting. Sources on both sides agreed the Palestinian gunmen who breached the putative ceasefire were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- the radical PLO faction whose secretary-general, Abu Ali Mustafa, was assassinated by Israel on Monday. Mr Arafat, the sources said, had given orders to his loyalists in the Tanzim militia and other forces to put their guns down, but was evidently being defied by some in the PFLP. Gunmen from the PFLP also shot dead an Israeli near Nablus yesterday - the driver of a petrol tanker making deliveries to Palestinian areas.
Efforts at achieving a ceasefire will doubtless resume this morning, with both Mr Arafat and the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, under heavy US pressure to de-escalate the confrontation in this specific area. Mr Sharon reportedly told colleagues yesterday he thought Mr Arafat was trying to "drag" Israel into nearby Bethlehem - from where several mortar shells have also been fired at Gilo in the past two days - but that he would "never enter a city so holy to Christians". Mr Arafat, meanwhile, was yesterday asked whether he believed that Mr Sharon might try to kill him. "That's what they declared in their newspapers today," he replied, with a wry smile.
In more violence yesterday, a Palestinian man, Mr Khader Geddua Cna'an (26) was shot dead in his car on the West Bank's Anatot road; an unnamed Jewish organization claimed responsibility. A second Palestinian died in a clash with the army near the settlement of Morag in Gaza. Two more Palestinians, both teenagers, were killed by troops late on Tuesday - one near Tulkarm and the other near Rafah.