Ariel Sharon announced plans today to set up special "buffer zones" to protect Israelis. The Israeli Prime Minister also demanded Palestinians disarm fully, after Israeli forces carried out a fresh wave of attacks.
Meanwhile, Palestinian police have arrested three men suspected of involvement in the assassination of Israel's Tourism Minister last October. Israel made the arrest of Rehavam Zeevi's killers a condition for ending the confinement of Yasser Arafat.
The Palestinian leader has remained in his West Bank headquarters for two months. The arrest came as Israel launched simultaneous helicopter strikes on Palestinian security buildings in three towns in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Helicopter gunships fired on an administrative and finance office in Ramallah, belonging to Mr Arafat's elite Force 17 guard unit. At the same time, five missiles caused substantial damage to a building, which Force 17 and the Palestinian military police in Rafah share. This town lies on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Helicopters also fired a missile at the central police station in the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank. There were no immediate reports of deaths in any of the attacks.
At least one Palestinian was killed and two Israeli soldiers were injured in an earlier exchange of fire at military road block in the West Bank. This came in the wake of overnight strikes by Israel, which killed five Palestinians at the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza.
In a further development, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan today urged Israelis and Palestinians to embrace new ideas to end their conflict. He said that proposals for a ceasefire and gradual confidence-building were outmoded.
