THE MIDDLE EAST: The Israeli army continued its raid on two Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank yesterday, killing another five Palestinians.
Later a Palestinian official, Mr Ahmad Abdelrahman, said the Palestinian Authority was suspending all contacts with Israel "as long as the destructive Israeli aggression continues" against refugee camps.
Both sides issued ominous warnings, with one Israeli minister saying the military was taking the fighting into "enemy territory," and Palestinian militants threatened to fire rockets at Israeli cities if the operation did not cease.
With gunfights between Israeli troops and militants continuing in the Balata and Jenin camps, the number of Palestinians killed reached 19 yesterday as the operation entered its second day.
One Israeli soldier was killed on Thursday at the outset of the raids, which mark the first time the army has ventured into the refugee camps since they were handed over to Palestinian control six years ago as part of the Oslo peace accords.
Palestinians said yesterday's dead included a senior member of the military wing of the Hamas group in Jenin, Mr Haled Jamal Nazam. Also killed during the raid was a 10-year-old girl, who was standing by the window of her home when she was hit.
International criticism of the raids intensified yesterday. The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, Mrs Mary Robinson, said she joined the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, in calling for an "immediate" Israeli withdrawal from the camps. "I would like to express my dismay at the incursion of the Israeli forces in the two refugee camps," which she added was "in total disregard of international human rights and humanitarian law".
Israeli leaders have said the aim of the operation is to round up militants and seize illegal weapons. The commander of Israeli forces in the West Bank, Brig Gen Gershon Yitzhak, offered a further reason yesterday:
"To make it very clear that there will not be any safe place for the perpetrators of terror and those who send them." Balata is a stronghold of militants from the Fatah party of the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, while several suicide bombers have come from Jenin.
As Palestinian gunmen yesterday continued to engage Israeli troops in the camps, the Fatah movement threatened to fire locally-produced Kassam-2 rockets into major Israeli cities.
Michael Jansen adds:
Although Egypt is among the 40 countries which have so far backed the Saudi peace proposal, President Hosni Mubarak said it is unlikely to succeed because Israel views the offer as a starting point for talks rather than a simple trade-off.
He said that Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's call for "full normalisation" on the part of the Arabs in exchange for Israel's "full withdrawal" of Arab territory occupied in 1967 was non-negotiable.
"Are the Israelis ready to withdraw from the occupied territories?" Mr Mubarak asked. "They have started to say, 'Let's talk to Crown Prince Abdullah. We want to discuss and make negotiations, meet halfway.' This will not work," Mr Mubarak told the Washington Times on the eve of his departure on an official visit to the US.
The Egyptian leader spoke at greater length to the Cairo daily al-Akbar. "The words of Prince Abdullah are good."