Telling his people in a nationwide TV address that they were now "at war - at war with terrorism," Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, last night ordered a widening of Israeli military activity in the West Bank after three more Palestinian suicide attacks killed 15 Israelis.
Mr Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority President who is isolated with a few dozen aides, bodyguards and supporters in a cluster of offices at his Israeli-captured Ramallah headquarters, appealed to the international community for the "immediate despatch" of troops to force the Israelis back.
Late last night, Palestinian officials reported that Israeli troops had opened fire on a building in central Ramallah, killing many of those inside. Mr Jibril Rajoub, Mr Arafat's West Bank security chief, put the death toll at 30, all members of his security forces. There was no immediate Israeli army comment.
Amid an escalating clamour of Arab protest at the Israeli army operations, and fears that the region is moving nearer to full-scale Israeli-Arab confrontation, the Pope issued an Easter Sunday appeal for peace. American, European and UN leaders and officials are urging Israel to withdraw from Palestinian areas and Mr Arafat to give instructions to his security forces to rein in the bombers - to no avail.
In the worst of the weekend's suicide bombings, 15 Israelis, many of them Arabs, were killed in a Haifa restaurant, in an attack claimed by Hamas. A member of Mr Arafat's Fatah group blew himself up in a Tel Aviv café on Saturday night, and another bomber struck at the West Bank settlement of Efrat yesterday afternoon; some 30 Israelis were injured in those attacks.
Although the Bush administration has backed a UN call for Israel to withdraw its forces, it appears to be in no hurry make Mr Sharon comply, particularly while the bombings continue. President Bush said on Saturday night that he fully understood Israel's "need to defend herself." By contrast, Jordan, which has a full peace treaty with Israel, and Morocco, which maintains lower-level relations, threatened to reevaluate ties if the siege of Mr Arafat was not lifted. Protesters in Egypt, the other Arab country at peace with Israel, demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.
Israel's Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, insisted that the army had been ordered not to harm Mr Arafat personally, but Mr Arafat was adamant that this was "a big Israeli lie". And Israeli military sources said last night that several of the men alleged to have plotted and carried out last October's assassination of Israel's tourism minister were hiding out alongside Mr Arafat, and that troops had been told to capture these suspects "at any price". In a telephone conversation with the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, Mr Arafat said he had pleaded for "the immediate dispatch of international forces, to end this military escalation against our people, against our cities and refugee camps".
Last night, Israeli tanks and troops were moving into the West Bank city of Kalkilya, confirming Mr Sharon's comments to his ministers earlier in the day that he had no intention of cutting short the operation, which he said would last for weeks. Mr Peres, the most moderate member of the multi-party coalition, gave rather half-hearted backing to the military operation - which now sees Israel calling thousands of reserve soldiers into the heaviest action since the Lebanon War 20 years ago.
He said that Israel was acting "in response to the suicide bombers. The Palestinian Authority should (take action to thwart them), but it didn't". Mr Arafat, he said, had made "many, many mistakes" - including rejecting a US-led ceasefire attempt last week. Palestinian officials retorted that they had been working seriously towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli incursions, approved after last Wednesday night's suicide bombing in Netanya, in which 22 Israelis were killed, have mainly focused these past three days on Ramallah, where Israel has made some 500 arrests.