The Israeli cabinet has announced it is to continue its controversial policy of attacking Palestinian militants considered a threat to state security. The decision has prompted Palestinian warnings that the whole region was headed for a new war.
Despite harsh international reaction to an attack in the West Bank town of Nablus yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office has declared it will "continue to reserve its basic right to self-defence." Yesterday's attack left six militant Palestinian activists and two children dead. Palestinian activists reacted with threats of retaliation.
Up to 100,000 Palestinians come out onto the streets of Nablus for the funerals of those killed. To the sound of massive volleys of gunfire ripping through the air, they cried "revenge, revenge" as they gathered for prayers for the dead in the town's main square, where shops and businesses have shut down for two days of official mourning across the Palestinian territories.
The United States was quick to criticise the attack. The State Department said earlier that both sides should recognise that disaster lay down the path of escalation and retaliation. This afternoon's statement from the Israeli government effectively leaves a six-week-old US-brokered ceasefire in tatters.
But in its defence of yesterday's violent escalation and the subsequent promise to continue down that road, Mr Sharon's office said that the Palestinian Authority had failed to uphold the ceasefire in the first place.
Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, is in Rome for a round of meetings Italian leaders. Earlier this week, he headed for Cairo to drum up support for a conference of Arab leaders, aimed at examining the worsening situation in the region.
This afternoon, a Palestinian man was killed and several others wounded in the West Bank town of Hebron.
