The Militant Hamas movement yesterday pledged to "burn every Jew in the land of Palestine" and reduce Israel to "a cowardly, panicked state that sees no safety and no security".
The new threat of violence, contained in a leaflet issued in Gaza, was an apparent follow-up to a leaflet distributed soon after last Wednesday's suicide bombing in Jerusalem, in which 13 Israelis were killed. The first leaflet had given Israel until Sunday to release Hamas prisoners from its jails. Yesterday's leaflet said that since Israel had been "too haughty" to meet that deadline, it would not be extended, and that "martyrdom operations" would now follow.
So long as the identities of last Wednesday's bombers remain unknown, it is difficult to ascertain the credibility of the Hamas threats. But Israel remains on a high security alert, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told King Hussein in a long Monday night telephone conversation that Israel had hard intelligence warnings of further attacks.
The king had been reported to be planning to come to Jerusalem today to try and help restore confidence between Mr Netanyahu and Mr Arafat.
But in a curious mix-up, Jordanian officials denied that such a visit was ever contemplated while the prime minister's aides suggested that the king had changed his mind. At any rate, it is Crown Prince Hassan who is now expected here today.
The Jordanians were yesterday playing host to Mr Arafat, who is making increasingly fervent pleas to the international community to pressurise Israel to lift its blockade around West Bank cities and the closure order imposed on the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel has also followed through on its threat to withhold tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority.
Mr Netanyahu has also ordered the demolition of several "illegally built" Palestinian homes in Ramallah and Hebron, while in what will be perceived by the Palestinians as further proof of his fundamental opposition to peace efforts, the left-wing Israeli group Peace Now claimed yesterday to have evidence of government plans for large scale building of Jewish homes in the West Bank. David Horovitz is managing editor of the Jerusalem Report
Paul Cullen adds: The Palestine Authority's representative in Ireland, Mr Yousef Allan, has accused Israel of trying to shift the blame for last week's bombs away from its own security failures.
"If there is a failure of security they are responsible, not us. We will not arrest people at random just to please the Israelis. We have to have the proof first," he said yesterday.