The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, yesterday flatly rejected a demand by the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, that international forces be deployed to protect his people, as rioting and exchanges of gunfire continued in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile Israel said it would reopen the Palestinian airport in Gaza which it closed last week for the third time since violence erupted nearly six weeks ago. The Israeli army said it would reopen the Gaza International Airport today as a "confidence-building measure" after weeks of fighting between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.
Mr Arafat made his call for international intervention on the CBS 60 Minutes programme on Sunday, saying there was a need for "quick international forces" to protect the Palestinians.
A senior aide to Mr Arafat, Mr Nabil Abu Redaineh, said the Palestinian Authority chairman would raise the issue during a meeting with President Clinton on Thursday. "We have repeatedly been requesting the United Nations Security Council to send international troops to the area," Mr Redaineh said.
But Mr Barak, who will meet Mr Clinton in Washington on Sunday, dismissed an Israel TV report that the US had consulted him on the idea, and asserted Israel would strenuously oppose the introduction of any international forces. "An international army or observers," he said yesterday, "cannot help find a solution to the conflict but may even make it worse".
Over 170 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed since fighting erupted in late September. There were a series of pre-dawn shooting incidents yesterday, with Palestinians firing at Israeli targets in Jenin, Jericho and Ramallah. The shooting resumed after dark in Tulkarem, Ramallah and Hebron.
A booby-trapped fishing boat exploded alongside a small Israeli naval ship near the Israel-Egypt border along the Gaza Strip but caused no casualties, an army spokeswoman said.
A Palestinian suspected of taking part in the lynching last month of two Israeli soldiers in Ramallah was arrested in Jerusalem, Israeli police sources said.
A pamphlet released by an umbrella body of leading Palestinian organisations called on Palestinians to escalate the uprising and to enforce a siege on Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.
The consensus among Israel's leaders is that Mr Arafat wants to precipitate Kosovo-style international intervention to undermine Israel's hold on the West Bank and Gaza and to wrest further concessions from Mr Barak. The thinking in the Israeli army is that the Palestinian leader believes that the higher the Palestinian casualties, the greater the chances of UN forces being sent.
Last night, Mr Barak easily survived four censure motions in the Knesset, Israeli radio reported. The motions had been filed by Israeli Arab political parties.
The Syrian Prime Minister, Mr Mohammad Mustapha Miro, held talks with his Lebanese counterpart, Mr Rafiq Hariri, during a day-long official visit to Lebanon yesterday.
He congratulated the Lebanese people on their victory when they liberated southern Lebanon from 22 years of Israeli occupation.
"The Lebanese victory is also a victory for Syria, for the Arabs and the Palestinian people".