Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon has rejected the criticism voiced by US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell over his military actions against the Palestinians.
"Israel never declared war on the Palestinians but wages a war against terrorist organisations as legitimate defence," said a statement from Mr Sharon's office.
"The Palestinian Authority is the one who launched this war, it has the means to stop it, but it prefers to pursue this terrorist war," the statement said.
It was issued hours after Mr Powell expressed some of his strongest criticism yet of Israeli policy.
"Prime Minister Sharon has to take a hard look at his policies and see whether they will work," Mr Powell told a House of Representatives subcommittee last night.
"If you declare war against the Palestinians and think you can solve the problem by seeing how many Palestinians you can kill, I don't know that that leads us anywhere".
AFP