In the small hours of yesterday morning, dozens of armed Palestinians gathered in Bethlehem's Manger Square and in the town's Dehaishe refugee camp, ostensibly preparing to try and repulse an Israeli invasion. The night before, a force of Israeli tanks and army bulldozers had moved into Palestinian-controlled territory further to the north in Jenin, and demolished two police buildings before pulling out three hours later. This time, though, the Israelis didn't come.
Some say the Israeli government was deterred by the Bush Administration, which had publicly criticized the Jenin incursion. Another explanation was that the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, had urged government colleagues to give him a chance to open a dialogue with aides to the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat.
But the Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, denied all of this yesterday. "No one pressured me," he insisted. "Not the Americans, not the foreign minister."
Rather, Mr Ben-Eliezer asserted, he had received "intelligence information" shortly before the tanks had been set to roll to the effect that Palestinian gunfire from Beit Jala, outside Bethlehem, on the Jewish neighbourhood of Gilo - across the valley - was being halted on Mr Arafat's personal orders. Mr Hassan Abed Rabbo, an official from Mr Arafat's Fatah faction in Beit Jala, confirmed orders had been issued forbidding gunfire on Israeli targets there or anywhere else in PA-controlled territory. It seems Egypt may have played a behind-the-scenes role, urging Mr Arafat to impose control. Egyptian officials have been stepping up mediation efforts.
The Beit Jala-Bethlehem reprieve may only be temporary. Tanks are still deployed at the southern edge of Jerusalem, overlooking the West Bank. Renewed Palestinian gunfire on Gilo, it seems, will prompt the postponed incursion - an operation that, reportedly, would involve a 24-hour Israeli army "clean up" of Beit Jala designed to deny Palestinian gunmen safe positions from which to open fire in the future.
While Fatah activists yesterday vowed to resist the Israeli army should it arrive, Israeli military analysts noted dryly that if the armed fighters were congregating in Manger Square and Dehaishe, they were likely to be find themselves some distance from the action. The Fatah activists also vowed that, were he to send in the tanks, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Sharon, would be signing his own death warrant. This threat is evidently being taken more seriously; security around Mr Sharon and other political and military leaders has been markedly upgraded in recent days.
While the Gilo-Beit Jala battlefront was quiet, Israeli undercover troops yesterday morning shot dead a Fatah leader, Mr Imad Abu Sneineh, in Hebron, firing on him from a car with Palestinian registration plates. Israeli military sources alleged that Mr Abu Sneineh (25) had been involved in shooting attacks on Israelis in the area.
Israeli Police said they had prevented a suicide bombing last Friday in the northern city of Haifa. The alleged bomber was arrested the day before, and led the security forces to the spot outside the city where the explosive device was hidden. Police said that, like the two bombers who carried out the most recent attacks in Jerusalem and Kiryat Motzkin, the suspect came from Jenin.