A three-way meeting between the Palestinians, the US and Egyptians at the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh ended yesterday with an announcement by the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, that a tripartite security committee had been formed to try to prevent further outbreaks of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The committee, consisting of Palestinian, Israeli and US security advisers, will "facilitate the process of security co-operation," according to Ms Albright.
But the Palestinians immediately made clear that this cannot be a substitute for an international investigation into the causes of the violence, their key demand, and one which is backed by the EU but was rejected by the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, in long and acrimonious talks in Paris on Wednesday.
"We will insist. . . on the necessity and the importance of convening an international factfinding panel on what our people have suffered from massacres and severe aggression that violate international law," the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, said upon his return to Gaza from Sharm el-Sheikh.
The announcement, coupled with the pointed absence of Mr Barak from the talks, meant that Ms Albright's attempts to put a positive spin on the meeting fell on stoney ground.
Perhaps more indicative of the fading hopes for an immediate solution to the ongoing clashes was the call, also in Sharm el-Sheikh, by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt for an emergency Arab summit later this month to discuss the crisis, which has led to riots and demonstrations throughout the Middle East. Prior to yesterday's meeting, Mr Mubarak had scaled back calls for a summit, hoping that Egypt could mediate between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
In another indication of growing Arab frustration with the situation, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Mr Amr Moussa, also used the occasion to blame Israel for provoking the violence in the first place by allowing Mr Ariel Sharon to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, calling the visit a "provocative action". He warned that for the violence to end, "we need that those kinds of provocative actions cease."
Where efforts to end the spiralling conflict will go now remains to be seen. At a news conference after the talks, Ms Albright and Mr Moussa said that despite the lack of any agreement between Palestinian and Israeli leaders, some steps to quell the violence - such as pulling Israeli troops back from trouble spots - had been taken.