Just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed in a Sunday speech to "smash" militants, Israeli tanks massed near Bethlehem and moved into another West Bank town.
Sharon declared on Sunday that "Israel is at war - a war against terrorism," in response to two new attacks in Israel that killed 16 people and wounded dozens more. He said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat - trapped in his Ramallah headquarters by the Israeli military - was the mastermind of terrorism against Israel.
US officials are pressing for quick responses from Palestinians and Israelis about their ideas to bridge gaps over implementing a truce plan negotiated last June by CIA Director George Tenet.
Palestinians said they would meet with U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni Tuesday morning to discuss the U.S. bridging proposals, including requests for changes.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Palestinians would request linking the cease-fire to a plan for peace talks, reopening Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem and eliminating an Israeli requirement that a truce must be called before Arafat attends the summit.
After a meeting that lasted into the early hours of Tuesday, Israeli leaders decided to ask for clarifications about two issues: arrest of suspected militants and confiscation of illegal Palestinian weapons, Army Radio reported.
U.S. officials said Zinni was trying to arrange a three-way meeting for later Tuesday.
President Bush had urged Israel on Monday to permit Arafat to attend the Arab League summit, which is set to discuss a Saudi Arabian proposal for comprehensive peace in the region. Until now, the Israeli government has indicated a reluctance to end Arafat's confinement unless he takes decisive steps to halt terrorist attacks.
DEBATING TENETS OF TENET
Meanwhile, Palestinian and Israeli leaders separately weighed a truce proposal drawn up by the United States.
Israel's expanded security cabinet is expected to approve the implementation plan, Israel Radio reported.
Israel says it wants peace with the Palestinians, but in this time of heightened tensions, who is the real Ariel Sharon? Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell examines the various public faces of Israel's leader.
"The president believes that Mr. [Ariel] Sharon [Israel's prime minister] and the Israeli government should give serious consideration to allowing Yasser Arafat to attend," said Ari Fleischer, White House spokesman, on Monday.
The president's request to Sharon was conveyed through Secretary of State Colin Powell, Fleischer said. There was no explanation for why Bush did not talk directly to the Israeli leader.
DIFFERING PLANS
At the summit in Beirut, Arab leaders are expected to discuss the Saudi plan, which proposes an end to the Israeli-Arab conflict in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from the territories it occupied in the 1967 Mideast war.
Bush has welcomed the peace proposal by Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Crown Prince Abdullah. The president "thinks it would be very helpful in the search for peace in the Middle East," Fleischer said.
Fleischer said Bush would like Arab leaders to agree in Beirut to approve "Abdullah's initiative that recognizes Israel's right to exist."
Sharon said that the violence continued in spite of his efforts with U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni and Vice President Dick Cheney, and despite dropping his previous demand that there would be no talks until there were seven days of absolute calm.
The reward, Sharon said, was "terror, terror and more terror."
Sharon's statement came after two blasts on Sunday, which brought to five the number of number of suicide bombings against Israelis in as many days.
The blast in Haifa killed 16 people, including the bomber, and ripped open a large hole in the roof of the Arab-owned Matza restaurant, outside the Grand Canyon shopping mall. The explosion shattered tables, blew out windows and covered the floor with twisted piles of metal.The militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad made conflicting claims of responsibility for the attack.
Later Sunday, a suicide bomber blew himself up near a paramedics' station in the Jewish settlement of Efrat in the West Bank, killing himself and wounding four people, including a trainee medic who was in serious condition.
Three suicide bombings at the end of last week - in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the resort city of Netanya - killed at least 24 people and wounded dozens more.
PALESTINIANS: SHARON TO BLAME
In response to Sharon's speech, a senior Palestinian official said the Israeli leader was parroting the rhetoric used by the United States in its war of terror, and was himself to blame for more than 18 months of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed.
"Sharon bears responsibility for all the killings, actions and reactions and explosions that are causing civilian victims on both sides. Violence and the like cannot be separated from terror because occupation is violence and terror," Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestinian official said in a television interview.
Citing President Bush's recent statements in sympathy with Israel's operations against the Palestinians, Abed Rabbo said Sharon now enjoyed a "green light" from Washington.
"He wants to claim, like Washington, that he is waging a war against terror and that his enemy is one person and that he will face this war with all might ... [but] the more he pushes that line, the more Yasser Arafat becomes an icon of the Palestinian and Arab people, and all peace-loving people," he said.
Violence erupted in September 2000, destroying peace negotiations and helping bring the hard-line Sharon to power. In the past 18 months, more than 1,600 people have been killed, about three-quarters of them Palestinian.
ARAFAT UNDER SIEGE
Amid the string of attacks, Israel launched a new military campaign last week. Since Friday, troops have surrounded Arafat's three-story office building, where the Palestinian leader is a prisoner, along with scores of aides and guards.
Earlier Sunday in Ramallah, Israeli troops exchanged fire with Arafat's guards, who fired from inside the Palestinian leader's office.
Israel said troops opened fire after an armed man stepped out of Arafat's office building. The Palestinians said Israeli forces fired first and stormed the building, but were pushed back by Arafat's guards. Israel strongly denied a Palestinian claim that soldiers entered the building.
Arafat was just a few yards from the battling forces, and several of his guards sustained injuries, including two in serious condition, said Palestinian security officials inside the compound. They said Israeli troops also fired tear gas, and reported hearing the sound of an explosion.
ISRAELI GENERAL: ARAFAT AT RISK
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel has no intention of harming Arafat. "We don't want to turn it into a world war, into a regional war. We don't want to turn the entire world against us," Peres said.
However, the Israeli army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey, acknowledged that Arafat was at risk, even if he was not a target. "We must remember that he [Arafat] is not sitting in a monastery. He is surrounded by armed people, including his guards," he told Israel Radio.
At least 15 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers have been killed in Ramallah since Friday. Palestinian officials said Israeli soldiers killed five Palestinian policemen there on Sunday, when they opened fire on the officers, who were reportedly trying to surrender. Israel's army said it was checking the claim.
"We put our weapons at the main entrance and started to walk out when the Israelis fired on us," said a policeman at the building who would only give his name as Omar. He said 17 police remained in the building and the standoff continued.
CALLS FOR PULLBACK
Spain, which holds the current presidency of the European Union, repeated on Sunday the union's call to Israel to withdraw its troops from Palestinian territories.
Also, the foreign ministers from France and Germany agreed Sunday that Arafat's safety was crucial and called on Israel to halt all military operations.
Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko denounced the latest suicide attack, but added: "At the same time we demand the lifting of the blockade on Yasser Arafat's headquarters and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian cities."
His statement called on both sides to observe the terms of a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted on Saturday "in order to halt violence immediately, calm matters and open the way to a normalization of the situation..."
Security Council resolution 1402, approved with U.S. backing for the first time, called for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities and expressed "grave concern" at suicide bombings in Israel.
Meantime, at his compound, a besieged Arafat told foreign visitors that the Palestinians are "in urgent need of international intervention."
Bush has strongly backed Israel, saying: "I fully understand Israel's need to defend herself." And speaking at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Bush said that Arafat "can do a lot more to prevent attacks" against Israelis.
The president said Zinni will remain in the region to continue his efforts at arranging a cease-fire.
Yasser Arafat requests the international community to stop the aggression toward the Palestinian people in statements made in his Ramallah compound.
MAJOR DEPLOYMENT
Israel has called up 20,000 reserves soldiers in the largest mobilization in a decade. The call-up was expected to cost the Israeli economy more than $100 million a month, said the daily newspaper Haaretz.
Israeli forces enforced a strict curfew Sunday in Ramallah and moved from house to house, looking for suspected militants. The Palestinian Red Crescent said the bodies of four Palestinians were found in downtown Ramallah. An Associated Press reporter saw two bodies lying in a street in the center of the city, near 15 Palestinians kneeling against a wall under Israeli army guard.
Israeli soldiers arrest Palestinian police forces in Ramallah on Sunday.
In Israel, there were signs of unease about the military operation.
Peres, a member of the moderate Labor Party, said the military plans presented to the Cabinet last week were not detailed enough to allow ministers to make an informed decision. Peres and another Labor Party minister abstained in the crucial vote.
"I want to know exactly what is the scope, how far we're going, for how long, before I raise my hand," Peres said.
(China Daily April 1, 2002)
