The grim reversal of years of tentative peace progress continued apace yesterday, when Israel sent tanks and troops back into parts of Bethlehem they last occupied six years ago.
The army moved several hundred yards into the city from both the north and the south, tanks rolling onto main roads and soldiers taking up positions at the Paradise, Bethlehem and Intercontinental hotels. Troops took over the Aida refugee camp and parts of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour as well, following the renewal of Palestinian gunfire and mortar fire on Gilo - a Jewish neighbourhood on the adjacent southern edge of Jerusalem. Israel claims it as part of its expanded sovereign capital while the Palestinians insist it is occupied West Bank territory.
Gun battles flared overnight Thursday and throughout yesterday, with heavy fighting outside Rachel's Tomb and other flashpoints. One Palestinian was killed in Beit Jala, and at least seven Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers wounded in total, several of them seriously. Outside Ramallah, to the north, a Palestinian security officer was shot dead by an Israeli army sniper during exchanges of fire, Palestinian officials said. And in the Gaza refugee camp of Khan Younis, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed when a tank shell, apparently fired overnight by Israeli forces, exploded while he was playing with it.
While Palestinian ministers condemned what they called Israel's "state terrorism," the Palestinian Authority's West Bank security chief, Mr Jibril Rajoub, was last night urging Israel to bring the troops back out again, pledging that he would put an end to the firing at Gilo if they did so. Experience suggests that, sooner rather than later, an accommodation may be achieved: Israeli troops entered Beit Jala in late August in similar circumstances and pulled back out two days later following assurances from Mr Rajoub.
The spiralling violence that prompted yesterday's incursion began with Wednesday's assassination by gunmen from the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine of Mr Rehavam Ze'evi, (75), the Israeli tourism minister, a bitter critic of peace accords with the Palestinian Authority.
In the wake of Mr Ze'evi's killing, itself a response to Israel's assassination of the PFLP leader, Mr Abu Ali Mustafa, in August, Israel on Thursday sent troops to blockade three West Bank cities, killing three Palestinians in the process, and three militants were killed in a car bombing outside Bethlehem, including a local militia leader, Mr Atef Abayat. It was Mr Abayat's supporters who then responded by opening fire on Gilo.
In Bethlehem's Manger Square yesterday, beside the Church of the Nativity, thousands of Palestinians, some carrying machine guns, massed for the funerals of the three militants, shouting for revenge and jostling around Mr Abayat's body, which was wrapped in a Palestinian flag. Just a few minutes away, on the edge of town, the Israeli troops were settling in. Inside Israel, meanwhile, thousands attended the funeral of Mr Lior Kaufman, who was shot dead by Palestinian gunmen on Thursday night. Israel has stepped up security for political figures since the killing of Mr Ze'evi, who, it now transpires, had steadfastly refused pleas from security chiefs to be accompanied by a bodyguard.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, yesterday telephoned Mr Arafat and urged him to arrest Mr Ze'evi's killers and put them on trial.