The Middle East is today poised on the brink of war. A 48-hour ultimatum issued on Saturday night by Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, for an end to violence in the West Bank and Gaza expires this evening.
The Palestinians have rejected Mr Barak's threat to unleash the "full force of the military" as a "declaration of war", and are continuing to press for an international inquiry into the clashes, in which more than 80 people - most of them Palestinians - have been killed.
And while yesterday saw a reduction in the conflict, and talk of a ceasefire in Gaza, the past 11 days have seen several such brief periods of relative calm before conflict escalated again.
In Washington, Reuters reported a US official as saying that President Bill Clinton could go to the Middle East for summit talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
"There are a number of ideas under consideration but no decision has been made. I will not dissuade you from thinking that one of them is a leadership meeting . . . including the President," said a Clinton administration official.
The UN Secretary-General, Dr Kofi Annan, was due to leave for the Middle East late yesterday in an attempt to use personal diplomacy to resolve the crisis, the United Nations announced.
Tension is now rising on a second front: the Israeli-Lebanon border. Israel has sent troop reinforcements, including elite units, to the border, which had been quiet since Israel withdrew its forces in May, but where on Saturday a Hizbullah unit kidnapped three Israeli soldiers.
The International Red Cross is engaged in negotiations for a possible prisoner exchange, with Hizbullah seeking the release of several of its captives held by Israel and of a list of prisoners.
Israel has said it holds Syria ultimately responsible for the soldiers' well-being, and its Deputy Defence Minister, Mr Ephraim Sneh, spoke yesterday of Israeli readiness to fight on both fronts. Syrian state media dismissed the Israeli threat as "frivolous".
A flurry of demonstrations throughout the region - in Syria, Iraq, Egypt and elsewhere - underlined the widening potential for conflict. In an effort to stop it, both the United States and the United Nations were working behind the scenes, with the US State Department reported to have invited Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to talks tomorrow.
Before the fragile ceasefire took hold in Gaza, Israel blew up two apartment buildings and a factory at the Netzarim junction from which its military positions have been targeted.
It also closed the Palestinian airport in Gaza to all aircraft except that of the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, after a bus carrying Israeli airport security personnel was fired upon, and at least two passengers badly injured.
In the West Bank, Israel moved tanks to the settlement of Psagot, where heavy gunfire has been exchanged in recent nights, and the local Israeli commander warned Palestinian neighbours to leave their homes because, if shots came from them, they would be destroyed.
The site was promptly torched by Palestinians.
Mr Barak is to convene his cabinet tonight amid reports that he may set up an emergency government including the opposition Likud leader, Mr Ariel Sharon, whose visit to Jerusalem's Temple Mount on September 28th sparked this crisis.
The Palestinian Planning Minister, Mr Nabil Sha'ath, urged Israel to "pull out of our cities . . . stop threatening our citizens . . . and let's get to negotiations".