Amid a widening schism in the Israeli government over its policy in confronting the Palestinians, the Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, threatened to resign yesterday over calls by the Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, to intensify military activity in Ramallah.
The city has been the main focus of the largest Israeli military operation in the West Bank since 1967, and has been largely re-occupied by troops who have searched over the past two days for militants, weaponry, and bomb-making laboratories.
In fighting yesterday, the deputy head of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's Force 17 unit in the city, an Israeli soldier and an Italian photographer were killed.
Tanks maintained positions at major junctions and outside schools.
Last night, a Palestinian attacker stabbed two Israelis at a settlement north of the city, seriously injuring one of them.
At a cabinet meeting, Mr Sharon, head of the hardline Likud Party, demanded that Israeli soldiers press forward to the very centre of the city, and to the immediate environs of Mr Arafat's headquarters, without targeting or entering that compound.
However, Mr Ben-Eliezer, who leads the moderate Labour Party, said there was nothing to be gained by such an advance, and that the Ramallah operation should to be brought to a close.
He said Fatah gunmen might be hiding out in Mr Arafat's compound, but Israel would not seek to pursue them there.
If the tanks were ordered forward, and if aircraft were used to hit targets in the city, he said, he would leave the government.
"Get out, get out already," Mr Sharon reportedly retorted.
At this point, other ministers urged the disputants to take their argument outside.
The subsequent compromise saw Mr Ben-Eliezer withdraw his threat, and the troops maintaining their deployment last night, neither pulling out, nor moving into new areas. Mr Ben-Eliezer has been anxious to wind down the military activity ahead of the arrival of the Bush administration's peace envoy, retired Mr Anthony Zinni tomorrow.
Mr Sharon apparently prefers to demonstrably withdraw the troops once Mr Zinni has arrived.
The White House has complained that the deaths of Palestinian civilians in the Israeli action - the latest phase of an escalating cycle of violence that has seen some 160 Palestinians and 60 Israelis, many of them civilians, killed this month alone - does not "foster the kind of environment needed for Gen Zinni to be effective".
US Vice President, Mr Richard Cheney, continuing his Middle East trip by visiting Egypt yesterday, urged both sides to stop the violence.
The Palestinian Information Minister, Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, said yesterday that there could be no cease-fire as long as Israel was occupying Ramallah.