The drums of war were beating ever louder in the Middle East last night, as a frenzy of diplomatic activity had absolutely no impact on the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, who was meeting Israeli and Palestinian officials, noted that "the conflict must not be allowed to spread" and that the price of diplomatic failure "is more than anyone of us wants to pay". But, he added at a Tel Aviv press conference, he had come "with no magic formula".
President Clinton telephoned Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, and the Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, attempting to organise a summit he would host in Egypt or Italy - but neither of the two warring leaders seemed particularly interested in attending.
Mr Arafat, who spent much of the day in Egypt, in talks with President Hosni Mubarak, was again reported to be contemplating a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood. Mr Barak was on the point of bringing the right-wing opposition into an emergency government, having apparently concluded at the end of a 48-hour ultimatum to Mr Arafat that the Palestinian leader had abandoned the seven-year Oslo peace process.
And on the ground - in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and inside Israel itself - the clashes and the killings went on, the death toll neared 90 in 12 days of fighting, and Palestinian television broadcast an extraordinary call to "the masses of our people" across Palestine "to eradicate the centres of the Zionist entity from our homeland".
In an unprecedented sign of co-operation, Mr Arafat invited representatives from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements - Muslim militants who have always opposed any reconciliation with Israel - to attend a meeting of his authority cabinet. A spokesman for the militants, Ismail Abu Shanab, was quoted as saying they had discussed with Mr Arafat methods for "intensifying" the Palestinian uprising. Another Palestinian "Day of Rage" has been called for today.
Mr Arafat repeated his demand - rejected by Israel - for an international investigation of the violence, and his Planning Minister Mr Nabil Sha'ath said "there is an Israeli war declared on us". The Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shlomo Ben-Ami, said the Palestinians had made no effort to halt the violence and there were now "serious doubts" that Mr Arafat was a peace partner.
Anti-Israeli demonstrations flared again in Egypt, Morocco and other Arab capitals. There were reports that the Palestine Authority had asked moderate Arab states to freeze relations with Israel.
And as if that were not enough, Israel continued to reinforce its northern border with Lebanon, where tension remains acute following the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers by Hizbollah on Saturday. Lebanon was refusing international calls to strengthen its troop deployment on its side of the border, to prevent Israeli-Hizbollah clashes. The International Committee of the Red Cross and German mediators were still brokering a possible exchange of the three soldiers, for some 40 Lebanese and Islamic militant captives held by Israel.
Among the heaviest clashes was one in Nazareth, Israel's largest Arab city, on Sunday night in which at least two Israeli Arabs were shot dead - it was unclear whether this was by Israeli police, or by the Jewish protesters with whom they fought for hours. There were clashes, too, outside Ramallah and in Hebron, in the West Bank. The Palestinians reported at least two dead.
In a cave en route to Nablus, the bullet-riddled body of Rabbi Hillel Lieberman was found and extricated by Israeli soldiers under Palestinian gunfire. Rabbi Lieberman (37), an American-born father of eight from the settlement of Elon Moreh, was a distant cousin of the US vice-presidential candidate, Mr Joseph Lieberman.
A teacher at the Joseph's Tomb study centre in Nablus, he apparently set out to try to save religious artefacts from the tomb when he learned it was being torched by Palestinians after Israeli soldiers withdrew from it at the weekend. The Israeli army last night sealed off Nablus, ringing it with troops. Hundreds of Palestinians were also reported last night to have marched on the West Bank settlement of Beit El, and to have been rebuffed by Israeli gunfire. Shots were also fired at the settlement of Psagot.
Mr Arafat said he would be meeting UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan again tomorrow after they held two hours of talks on the crisis last night.