A deadly Israeli raid in the West Bank and a Palestinian suicide bombing in Israel on Sunday rocked prospects for Middle East peacemaking as a US envoy appeared to be losing patience in his quest for a cease-fire.
Islamic militant groups, after talks with the Palestinian Authority, said they were considering making an offer to halt attacks within Israel if the Israelis would give them an assurance to stop their strikes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
But a senior Israeli security official dismissed any such offer, saying Israel had no choice but to continue to ``act in self-defense'' as long as the Palestinian Authority failed to ''fight terrorism and make arrests.''
Israel's soldiers shot dead four Palestinian policemen in a raid on the West Bank village of Anabta that the mayor branded a killing in cold blood.
The Israeli army said it was searching for terrorists and the policemen had opened fire at troops while trying to run an Israeli roadblock. The army said it arrested dozens of suspected militants and blew up two bomb factories.
Hours later, a lone bomber blew himself up at a bus stop near the northern city of Haifa filled with soldiers returning to base at the end of the Israeli weekend.
Eight people were wounded in the fifth suicide bombing inside Israel in 10 days and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said military activities against the Palestinians may be intensified.
The bomber was badly wounded in the blast. Police said they shot him dead, fearing he was about to detonate more explosives. In Lebanon, Hizbollah's Al Manar television said the bomber was a member of Islamic Jihad.
IMPATIENT US ENVOY
Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking to reporters traveling with him from Kazakhstan to Russia, repeated Washington's call to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to do more to end the militants' attacks on Israelis:
``We've got to get a cease-fire. I think the burden right now is on Mr. Arafat to do more to get the violence down to zero.''
Palestinian officials say Israeli bombardments and incursions into Palestinian territory are making the crackdown Arafat has promised more difficult.
The renewed violence came just hours before Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs met for another round of US-brokered talks to end almost 15 months of conflict.
At least 756 Palestinians and 223 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began in September last year after peace negotiations deadlocked.
US envoy Anthony Zinni, in the words of an Israeli source, said at the start of the two-hour security meeting that he would consider ending his mission to achieve a cease-fire unless real progress on ending the violence was made within 48 hours.
A Palestinian security source said: ``Zinni walked out of the meeting five minutes after it started, blaming both sides that they were not serious.
``(He) gave both sides 48 hours to come back with answers on how they will implement their commitments, and what steps they have taken.''
However, another source familiar with the proceedings said that while the retired Marine Corps general had expressed some impatience, talk of an ultimatum was exaggerated.
``The Israelis and Palestinians agreed to continue contacts on security,'' the US embassy said. ``The United States plans to bring the two sides together in the next several days.''
In a signal to the Palestinians, the Israeli government held its weekly cabinet meeting at an unusual venue -- military headquarters in the West Bank.
``We have not finished our operations. In light of what is happening, we may have to step up our activities,'' Sharon said in broadcast remarks from the session.
Israel unleashed air strikes against Palestinian security installations and symbols of power last week after suicide bombers killed 26 people in Jerusalem and Haifa last weekend.
LIMITED TRUCE
A senior source in the al-Aqsa brigades affiliated with Arafat's Fatah faction said talks were under way with other Palestinian resistance groups on offering Israel a limited and conditional truce.
Earlier, the military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as al-Aqsa and another Fatah group had issued a statement saying they would stop attacks inside Israel for a week from Monday if Israel halted strikes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
But the al-Aqsa source, who said he also spoke on behalf of Hamas's military wing, said the statement had been issued prematurely by ``politicians rather than gunmen'' and no agreement had yet been reached among the militant groups.
(China Daily December 10, 2001)
