The Palestinians warned today a catastrophe was in the making should Israel not take immediate steps to get an international peace plan up and running, as fresh violence rumbled across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A senior Palestinian official accused Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon of stalling the Mitchell peace plan and said delays were only fanning the flames of unrest as a US-sponsored ceasefire has failed to take hold on the ground.
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Mr Ariel Sharon
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But Mr Sharon's camp vowed Israel would not budge on its demand that all the violence cease, despite criticism from European leaders that a 100 per cent halt is unsustainable and that its own attacks on Palestinians are worsening the situation.
"The Israeli military escalation clearly shows that the Sharon government demurs over the implementation of the Mitchell report," senior Arafat advisor Mr Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
"This policy - and American silence in the face of Israeli aggression - can lead to an explosion," said Mr Abu Rudeina, calling on the United States, Russia and the European Union to "force" Israel to implement the peace plan.
Mr Sharon returned yesterday from a visit to Europe, where German and French leaders cautioned him not to undermine Mr Arafat by accepting only a total end to all Palestinian attacks before moving forward with the Mitchell plan.
The prime minister downplayed the criticism, saying he had achieved his key goal of getting Europe to understand the Israeli position in the face of the ongoing violence.
In the West Bank today a young Palestinian was wounded by Israeli gunfire in the flashpoint town of Hebron, where reports said Jewish settlers went on the rampage and damaged Palestinian shops after they came under Palestinian gunfire.
Several Palestinian cars and houses were damaged in the incident.
Meanwhile Two Israeli soldiers were slightly hurt in a roadside bomb explosion near Nablus in the northern West Bank, an Israeli military spokesman said.
AFP