MIDDLE EAST: US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell criticised the Palestinian Authority yesterday for not doing enough to dismantle armed militias, writes Peter Hirschberg in Jerusalem.
"We need to see a more concerted effort against the capacity for terrorist activity on the Palestinian side," Mr Powell told reporters in Washington.
"It's not enough just to have a ceasefire." But Mr Powell did add that since Palestinian militants declared the ceasefire on June 29, "We have seen the level of terror and violence go down significantly, and there can be no dispute about that". The road map peace plan requires that the Palestinian Authority move to dismantle armed groups, but Palestinian Prime Minister, Mr Mahmoud Abbas says he has no intention of using force to confront Hamas and Islamic Jihad - a move which he fears could precipitate civil war.
Hundreds of Israeli police yesterday blocked a right-wing parliamentarian and several dozen Jewish extremists from forcing their way onto a disputed religious site in the Old City of Jerusalem, for fear their presence would spark a violent confrontation with Muslims at the hilltop shrine.
Police patrolled the area near the site Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call Haram al-Sharif, to stop Mr Yehiel Hazan, of the ruling Likud party, and members of an ultra-nationalist group called the Temple Mount Faithful, from visiting on the fast day of Tisha B'Av, when Jews mark the destruction of the two biblical temples in 586 BC and 70 AD.
Temple Mount Faithful members, (carrying a symbolic cornerstone of the Third Temple they want to build in place of the Al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques), tried to make their way to the site but were stopped.
Mr Hazan told police, physically blocking his advance, that he planned "to exercise my right as a Jew to visit the Temple Mount." Another Likud MP, Ms Inbal Gavrieli, cancelled her planned visit to the hilltop site, heeding police warnings that it could spark violence.
The site - Judaism's holiest and Islam's third holiest - is the most sensitive piece of real estate in the Middle East. After Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon visited there in September 2000, when he was still opposition leader, rioting ensued in which six Palestinians were killed. More violence followed, ultimately escalating into the intifada uprising.
In the centre of Ramallah, three masked militants yesterday gunned down a man they accused of collaborating with Israel. Doctors said the man was shot six times in the head and chest.
Near Jenin, Israel opened two more roads to Palestinian traffic that were closed by the army during the intifada.