THE MIDDLE EAST: Five Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops yesterday during a day-long raid - designed to thwart threatened Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli cities - deep inside Palestinian-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip.
Last night the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin, Powell, said that the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, had "accepted responsibility" for the foiled arms-smuggling attempt aboard the Palestinian-captained Karine A.
" wrote me a letter three days ago on the Karine A, accepting responsibility, not personal responsibility but as chairman of the Palestinian Authority," Mr Powell told reporters.
A shipment of some 50 tonnes of weapons aboard the Palestinian-captained ship was seized by the Israeli authorities in the Red Sea. Several senior Palestinian officials are thought to have been complicit in the attempt.
Israel said it arrested 18 Islamic extremists, including several involved in launching Hamas's Kassam II missiles at Israeli targets, and that all the Palestinians who were killed had been firing, or about to fire, at its troops. Palestinian officials said at least three of the dead men were policemen, hit by Israeli tank shells fired at their positions. Israel denied knowledge of the death of one man, Samer Hamad, whom Palestinian doctors said was wounded by tank fire and initially barred from transfer by ambulance to a Gaza City hospital.
The Palestinian Authority again appealed to the US to intervene to restrain the Israeli army, which used large tank and infantry forces in what was the largest incursion into Gaza in 16 months of intifada confrontation. Israel insisted it had no choice but to act, since the authority's President, Mr Arafat, was doing nothing to counter the activities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have carried out a string of suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli targets, and are now openly threatening to fire the Kassams into Israeli population centres.
Mr Arafat has publicly pledged to "put an end" to actions by "terrorist organisations such as Hamas. But Israeli officials have claimed Mr Arafat has quietly ordered the release of leading Hamas activists, including Mr Mohammad Def, who is said by Israel to have directed numerous suicide bombings.
Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, refuses to negotiate with Mr Arafat or to let him leave Ramallah.
But while the UN has urged Mr Sharon to end this virtual house arrest, the US has been critical of Israel's military responses to Palestinian attack, and the EU has declared that Israel needs Mr Arafat as a negotiating partner, the visiting British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, was markedly conciliatory to Israel yesterday. He said Mr Arafat needed to clamp down on violence as a first step towards new peace talks, and that Israel's suffering at the hands of the suicide bombers was "almost impossible to imagine". Mr Arafat's own West Bank security chief, Mr Jibril Rajoub, complained to him earlier this week that he was issuing contradictory orders about fighting the extremist groups, and eyewitnesses to their angry discussion confirmed yesterday that Mr Arafat pulled his pistol on Mr Rajoub at one point. Mr Rajoub, who is often cited by Israel as a possible moderate successor to Mr Arafat, said yesterday it had been "a storm in a tea cup".
A Hamas leader in Gaza, Mr Mahmoud Zahar, reiterated yesterday that he saw no difference between settlements in the occupied territories and "cities in the so-called Israel", adding that all were targets for the Kassam rockets.
Israel's Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, has spoken of the need to carve out "security zones" to keep Israeli population centres out of Kassam range - a scenario that would involve the reinvasion of at least two West Bank cities near the Israeli border, Tulkarm and Kalkilya.
Israeli officials had indicated yesterday's Gaza raid might last for days. But all the troops were pulling back to their original positions last night.
Reuters adds: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, urged Israel to end its siege of Mr Arafat, echoing an earlier call by the UN Secretary-General.