Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip yesterday called on Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, to assassinate the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, following the murder of a Gaza settler, apparently by Palestinians he had employed to work in his greenhouse.
Ms Roni Tsalah, a 30-yearold former Israeli army commando, was shot in the head and his body left in a field alongside his greenhouse at Kfar Yam, a tiny Gaza settlement that he had founded. Fellow settlers and the army searched for him all through Sunday night, before finding the body yesterday morning.
Gaza settlers then set fire to Palestinian crops, ripped out irrigation equipment and torched Palestinian cars in revenge attacks in Israeli-controlled Palestinian neighbourhoods close to the scene of the murder. Some called for the killing of Mr Arafat, asserting that he was to blame for the murder, having released from Palestinian jails in recent weeks Islamic militants and other inmates alleged to have carried out attacks on Israeli targets.
Mr Barak, who vowed that the killers would be tracked down and punished, reimposed a complete closure of the Gaza Strip, shutting the airport and the various border crossings, and restricted movement within the Strip for the million-plus Palestinians who live there.; These restrictions had only recently been lifted after a slight reduction in Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Israeli military sources said they had indications that members of Mr Arafat's Fatah movement were involved in the murder - a Fatah-linked group issued a claim of responsibility - but government officials said they had no proof of this. Nevertheless, Mr Barak cancelled a series of meetings that ministers and security chiefs had been scheduled to have with Palestinians officials last night, in protest at the killing.
Palestinian officials protested against the new closure orders, which Mr Nabil Sha'ath, Mr Arafat's Minister of Planning, described as "a return to full Israeli occupation" of Gaza. They also noted that a Palestinian man, Madi Ishtayah, was killed yesterday outside Nablus in a clash with Israeli soldiers.
Almost 370 people have died since violence erupted last September - 315 of them Palestinians, 38 Israeli Jews, 13 Israeli Arabs and a German doctor.
Also outside Nablus, an alleged Palestinian collaborator, Mohammed Haled, was found shot dead at the entrance of his home. His death followed the weekend's executions by the Palestinian Authority of two men convicted of helping Israel to track down and kill alleged intifada leaders.
Following criticism of the executions from local and international human rights groups and foreign governments, the Palestinian Authority announced a 45-day amnesty for alleged collaborators who turned themselves in. At least four men were reported to have immediately taken up the offer.
Despite the latest violence, negotiations between the two sides may resume as early as tonight or tomorrow, and there is a curious mix of assessments as regards the prospects for progress.
Aides to Mr Barak say that, in the few days before President Clinton leaves office, there is next to no chance of finalising a new "declaration of principles" - a document that would set out areas of agreement and disagreement as a basis for further negotiations in the Bush era.
Aides to Mr Shimon Peres, the former prime minister who met Mr Arafat earlier this week, however, say that such a document is within reach. And the right-wing Knesset member Mr Rehavam Ze'evi claims, improbably, that a far more dramatic agreement is to be signed on Thursday - a framework peace treaty under which Israel will relinquish East Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount to Palestinian sovereignty, and agree to absorb 250,000 Palestinian refugees over the coming five years.
AFP adds: Egyptian security forces yesterday barred visitors from entering the northern town of Damanhour, which hosts an annual Jewish pilgrimage, amid clear signs of a rise in anti-Israeli sentiment linked to the Palestinian uprising.