To the delight of the Palestinian Authority and the dismay of the Israeli government, American Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell yesterday endorsed a Palestinian demand for the deployment of an international observer force in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Just hours after the PowellArafat talks had ended with a reiteration by the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, that he was "completely committed to the peace process" and to an American-brokered ceasefire that was supposed to have taken effect 15 days ago, an Israeli woman was shot dead on a West Bank road by Palestinian gunmen.
The woman, who was killed in her car near a settlement in the northern area of the West Bank, was the seventh Israeli fatality since the ceasefire was declared.
Gunmen from a cell linked to Mr Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO admitted responsibility for the killing, terming it revenge for the death of a Fatah militant who was killed in an explosion in Nablus earlier this week. A Palestinian Authority (PA) official noted that the shooting had taken place in a West Bank region designated Area B, where Israel maintains overall security responsibility.
Mr Arafat ordered his security services to track down and arrest the killers of the Israeli settler woman, the Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported.
Nine Palestinians have also been killed in the ceasefire period. The latest victim, Mr Mohammed Fares, was shot dead while walking home in the town of Qalkilya yesterday. PA sources said he was a suspected "collaborator" with Israel - implying that he may have been killed by Palestinian gunmen.
The violence underlined the problematic nature of Mr Powell's mission to the region, which continued yesterday with meetings not only with Mr Arafat but with Israeli leaders as well. The American administration is anxious to try and capitalise on the relative reduction in violence and move ahead towards an eventual resumption of peace negotiations.
But Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, is adamant that he will not adopt the next phases of the Mitchell Commission peace proposals, including a full freeze on building at Jewish settlements, until there is a "100 per cent" cessation of violence.
And following yesterday's shooting, Mr Sharon's Minister of Defence, Mr Benjamin BenEliezer, indicated that Israel might soon end its self-declared policy of restraint and take harsh military action against Palestinian targets. If the killings did not stop, the Minister said, Israel would have no choice but to hit back and then "life for the Palestinians will become even less tolerable; hell will come to their homes".
Mr Powell's endorsement of an international observer force, meanwhile, came as a complete shock to the Israeli government. Mr Arafat has long been calling for such a force to protect the Palestinians but the US has hitherto vetoed UN proposals for international intervention, and the Mitchell Commission, too, did not endorse the move.
Somewhat bizarrely, a White House spokesman insisted that there had been "no change in the United States' position".
Mr Powell said there was "a clear understanding of the need for some kind of moderating observer function" and that the monitors would be stationed at points of friction to resolve disputes.
Mr Arafat said that the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and others should provide the observers.
Meanwhile, former US president Mr Bill Clinton directly blames Mr Arafat for the failure of last year's Camp David summit to achieve a permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, according to a Newsweek report. Mr Clinton, speaking to guests at a recent Manhattan gathering, reportedly said that Mr Arafat called him three days before the end of his term of office and told him he was "a great man".
"The hell I am," Mr Clinton said he replied. "I'm a colossal failure and you made me one."