More than three weeks after Israel pulled its forces out of Lebanon, the United Nations has yet to formally ratify the withdrawal, and an effort by UN officials to inspect a section of the border was called off yesterday when the UN team came under fire from Israeli troops.
Brig Gen Jim Sreenan, the Irish Deputy Force Commander of UNIFIL, was leading yesterday's verification mission and appeared to be the target of the shooting from the Israeli Defence Forces. A bullet struck the ground less than a metre from him, but he was unhurt.
Israel has apologised for the incident, in which a blue-helmeted UN verification team, accompanied by several Lebanese officials and reporters, unchained a gate in a barbed-wire fence and prepared to walk towards the border village of Abbassiyah. Israeli military officials, acknowledging that shots were fired both in the air and at the ground within a few metres of the officials, said that its soldiers believed that Lebanese civilians and journalists were crossing the border without permission.
The army is also still investigating claims, by Amnesty International among others, that it killed several civilians, including a BBC driver, with tank fire across the border in the course of the military pullout.
While this mini-dispute rumbles on, heavier clouds are gathering over Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. The Palestinian Authority president, Mr Yasser Arafat, held talks at the White House with President Clinton yesterday, as his negotiators broke off one session of talks with Israel over a further land handover due next week and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
A second separate channel of negotiations, aimed at drafting a full Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty, continued unaffected.
However, both sides are now accusing each other of hardening positions and blocking progress, with some Israelis asserting that Mr Arafat's officials now want to emulate Hizbullah in southern Lebanon, by demanding that Israel relinquish every inch of occupied territory, through force if necessary.
Indeed, Mr David Levy, the Israeli Foreign Minister, yesterday urged his Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, to resolve an ongoing coalition crisis by forming a "unity government" with the right-wing opposition Likud since, he said, the Palestinians were now making unacceptable demands.