MIDDLE EAST: Israel has completely barred Palestinian travel in most of the West Bank in a new attempt to thwart a wave of attacks, writes David Horovitz, in Jerusalem
Amid growing criticism from the Israeli right wing over the government's failure to stop the violence, including a call for the resignation of the Prime Minister, two more Israelis were shot dead yesterday by Palestinian gunmen and a suicide-bomber killed himself when his explosives detonated prematurely in a stolen car in northern Israel.
Mr Ariel Sharon was also heavily criticised by the Egyptian President, Mr Hosni Mubarak, who told Israeli journalists, after hosting the Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, that Mr Sharon had "no policies and no vision" and was "not a man of his word".
Mr Mubarak urged Israel to resume negotiations immediately with the Palestinian Authority, albeit not necessarily with its president, Mr Yasser Arafat.
Twenty-seven people have been killed in Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets in the past fortnight, since an Israeli air strike in Gaza City killed the Hamas military commander and more than a dozen civilians.
The latest Israeli fatalities, in an overnight attack, were a husband and wife shot dead near the settlement of Eli, in the West Bank outside Ramallah.
Their three-year-old son was injured. A group affiliated with Mr Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO admitted responsibility.
Aides to Mr Arafat have been holding talks with such groups and with Hamas, about halting suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli civilians inside sovereign Israel, but not about stopping attacks in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Also overnight, Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians in gun-battles in the village of Burqa, where the army said it was hunting down intifada extremists.
In similar searches in the West Bank town of Tubas, troops captured Mazan Fukha, a Hamas leader who allegedly orchestrated Sunday's suicide bombing in which nine people, as well as the bomber, were killed.
Hamas is threatening more such attacks, with its spokesmen telling Israel to "prepare more body-bags and wait for the coming operations".
The Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, said that in response to the latest wave of attacks, the Israeli army was now imposing "a total closure" on much of the West Bank.
"Nobody enters and nobody leaves; there is no movement between the towns and villages," he said, although the army said that restrictions would be lifted in "humanitarian" cases.
The areas most affected include the cities of Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus, Qalkilya and Ramallah - or virtually the entire northern section of the West Bank. The army has also closed off the town of Rafah, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip.
Mr Ben-Eliezer said that Israel was holding almost 140 would-be suicide-bombers in jail - men and women allegedly intercepted en route to carry out attacks, or earlier in the preparatory process.
He added that Israel intended to continue its policy of demolishing the homes of bombers' families and deporting relatives alleged to have encouraged their actions, a process currently stalled in the Israeli Supreme Court.
While these policies and the tightened closures attract criticism from abroad and on the Israeli left, there was fierce criticism of the government yesterday from the political right.
Mr Avigdor Lieberman, the increasingly prominent leader of a Knesset party representing immigrants from the former Soviet Union, demanded that both Mr Sharon and Mr Peres resign immediately and disappear "hand-in-hand" into "an appropriate old-age home".
Mr Lieberman, formerly the bureau chief of former prime minister Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, another of Mr Sharon's critics from the hard-right, demanded that Israel deport Mr Arafat and smash the PA.
He said the Prime Minister had "utterly failed" to honour a pledge to bring peace and security to Israel.