In a worsening Middle East crisis, the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, warned this evening that peace talks with the Palestinians would be called off if the violence did not end in two days. He said that Israel would consider the peace process dead and use all means to restore order.
Mr Barak was speaking after the conflict spilled over into Lebanon with the first artillery exchanges since the Israeli pullout in May. The firing started after Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians in Lebanon and wounded 22 others during a protest along the border.
Hizbollah captured three Israeli soldiers that they say that they will free if Israel frees Lebanese detainees. The European Union and the United States have appealed to all sides to try harder to prevent a further escalation of violence. At the United Nations, the Security Council is meeting to try and agree a draft resolution on the conflict.
In a separate incident, crowds of Palestinians have ransacked a Jewish religious shrine in the West Bank after Israeli guards withdrew from it on the orders of Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The Palestinians raised their flag, started fires and attacked the site with picks and crowbars. The Israeli government said that the Palestinian Authority had promised to protect the shrine known as Joseph's Tomb in the town of Nablus.
Meanwhile, a senior Syrian official has said that urgent medical aid is being sent to help hundreds of Palestinians who were wounded in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem. The supplies were expected to reach the Jordanian capital Amman by road in special trucks on Sunday, he said. The official added that a medical and technical team, led by a deputy health minister, would accompany the shipment, which includes some ten tonnes of medicine designed for emergency cases at hospitals.
