The Palestinian conflict is escalating, apparently inexorably, into all-out confrontation, after the gravest day of violence yesterday since clashes erupted two weeks ago.
International diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire are making no headway whatsoever. As President Clinton saw his efforts to secure a permanent peace in the Middle East crumbling, he appealed to both sides for calm and a return to the negotiating table.
The ominous escalation yesterday began with the killing of two Israeli uniformed reserve soldiers by a Palestinian mob in the West Bank town of Ramallah - their deaths captured in television footage that was shown repeatedly on Israel TV and described as "inhuman" by Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak.
Mr Barak, who has now called on opposition politicians to join him in "an emergency unity government". Mr Barak earlier ordered army assault helicopters to avenge the killings with missile strikes on the very Palestinian police station where the soldiers died, on a Palestinian radio installation in Ramallah, and on the Gaza headquarters of a paramilitary Palestinian force, the Tanzim.
Last night Israel unilaterally closed its main border crossing linking Egypt and Gaza.
Mr Barak, who denied that the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat's home or office compound had been targeted or hit in the strikes, said he blamed Mr Arafat's police for failing to prevent the soldiers' deaths, and that the Palestinian leader had apparently decided to forsake the peace process.
Aides to Mr Arafat called the Israeli air strikes "a declaration of war". And Mr Arafat himself, visiting some of those injured in hospital, said his people would not hesitate in their "march towards an independent state", with Jerusalem as its capital.
"As long as the Israelis are shooting," said the Palestinian negotiator, Mr Saeb Erekat, "this conflict will escalate". The Palestinian Authority declared a state of emergency, and was reported to be mobilising forces for further possible confrontation overnight.
Foreign diplomats and other overseas personnel were heading out of the Gaza Strip, in fear of further violence. A synagogue inside Palestinian-controlled Jericho was set ablaze as night fell. And Israel sealed off each Palestinian city in the West Bank with a ring of troops and was bolstering its deployment in the West Bank and Gaza. An Israeli army helicopter fired rockets at a Palestinian police academy in the West Bank town of Jericho.
Near Hebron, Jewish settlers went on the rampage, shooting and wounding three Palestinians, as Israeli helicopter gunships fired into the town.
President Clinton would be ready to attend a four-party summit proposed by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, the White House said. Mr Clinton, said by his staff to have had one of the worst days in his presidency, said "the alternative to the peace process is now no longer merely hypothetical. It is unfolding today before our very eyes."
There were reports in Jerusalem last night that President Saddam Hussein had mobilised several thousand troops, which were said to be moving towards the Iraqi-Jordanian border.
The families of six Irish soldiers with the UN in Israel have been evacuated amid fears for their safety. The Department of Foreign Affairs "strongly advised" against travel to the area.