The European Union has branded the Palestinian groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, "terrorist networks" for the first time. In a statement, EU Foreign Ministers demanded that the Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat, call an end to armed attacks on Israel.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, is to travel to the Middle East tonight to try to persuade Mr Arafat and the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, to return to peace talks.
Earlier today, two Palestinian children were killed when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a car in the West Bank city of Hebron. The two boys were 13 and two years old.
Seven other people were injured. There are reports that the Israelis were targeting a member of Islamic Jihad.
Meanwhile, the Middle East peace process is under further pressure with the announcement by US special envoy Anthony Zinni that he will quit if Israel and the Palestinians do not "shape up" within 48 hours.
He is frustrated at massive violence that has dogged his two-week peace mission. Mr Zinni delivered the warning at US-mediated Palestinian-Israeli security talks yesterday, after a new Palestinian suicide bombing in the northern Israeli city of Haifa. Israel threatened retaliation to the bombing.
