Enemies trade blame over more bloodshed in the Middle East

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon faced demands yesterday that he abandon a ceasefire and strike at the Palestinians, after the killing of two Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders voiced doubts as to whether the six-day-old truce would hold and succeed in staunching more than eight months of bloodshed which has cost nearly 600 lives.

"The violations of the ceasefire and the murderous attacks create an intolerable situation which will not allow Israel to maintain its current position over time," Sharon's office said.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had warned earlier that "the ceasefire and any measures, agreements and security meetings can't possibly last if the Israeli side doesn't ... take swift measures on the ground."

The two sides traded blame over ceasefire violations which have left four Palestinians and three Israelis dead since the United States-brokered truce took effect a week ago.

"Enough restraint!" shouted a furious crowd of about 100 settlers outside Sharon's office in Jerusalem alongside the body of 35-year-old Danny Yehuda, shot dead by Palestinian gunmen while driving near the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday.

"Why is Arafat still alive? He's the chief murderer," shouted one mourner at Israeli cabinet ministers attending. A second settler, Doron Zisserman, was shot dead on another West Bank road.

Sharon warned right-wingers in his right-left coalition that however grave the violence, "to take the people now to war, in my view, is a mistake of the first order from every perspective."

Both Sharon and Arafat have been urged to shore up the ceasefire and pave the way for renewed peace negotiations in a concerted international drive by the US, European Union and United Nations.

The two sides held security talks yesterday, hosted by US officials.

The Palestinian Preventive Security chief in the West Bank, Jibril Rajoub, said afterwards that "the events of the last 48 hours cast its shadow on the meeting, be it the aggressions of settlers or the incidents of shooting [at settlers]."

Palestinian sources said settlers burned cars and threw stones at a village near Nablus yesterday, wounding two Palestinians. Israeli police could not confirm the incident but said they arrested several settlers elsewhere in the West Bank on suspicion that they planned to attack Palestinians.

Rajoub said the parties were to meet again today.

At least 459 Palestinians, 114 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have died since last September, when a Palestinian revolt against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip erupted after peace talks stalled.

Palestinians say for the ceasefire to hold Israel must lift its crippling blockades of those areas and withdraw troops to positions they held prior to the uprising, as well as freezing the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.

Many Palestinians see attacks on Jewish settlements - built on land Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war and considered illegal by the international community - as legitimate resistance against occupation.

Israel has eased some closure measures, but insists it cannot remove all restrictions until attacks on Israelis cease and the organisers are arrested.

- REUTERS

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