The United States said Tuesday the security situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories had seriously deteriorated since the weekend and threatened to spiral out of control, reported AFP.
State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said political assassinations carried out by Israel and attacks on Israeli settlers by Palestinians had to stop if peace talks were to resume.
"Our assessment is that the events of the last 48 hours represent a serious deterioration of the security situation on the ground at a time that we all recognize is very, very sensitive," Boucher told reporters.
"The use of Israeli helicopter gunships, Palestinian attacks against settlements and motorists, the use of mortars by Palestinians and the targeted killings by the Israeli defense force today are producing a new cycle of action or reaction which can become impossible to control," he said.
Boucher referred to the latest in a series of pinpoint strikes against Palestinian activists in which the Israeli army killed a senior officer in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's personal bodyguard, accusing him of being a terrorist.
Massud Ayyad was killed when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a volley of rockets at his car in the northern Gaza Strip.
In Gaza, two Palestinians were killed in other incidents and gunbattles raged, leaving around 36 Palestinians wounded, said press reports.
The Palestinians have vowed to take revenge for the Ayyad killing which came shortly before a teenage Palestinian boy was killed as he was walking home from school near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
"Both the Israelis and the Palestinians need to do everything they can to stop the violence, to maintain calm, and to create the right environment for dialogue and negotiation," Boucher said.
He spoke as envoys sent to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon met with US State Department officials, said the agency.
A Palestinian official urged President George W. Bush "not to repeat the mistakes of the past" in the peace.
One of the envoys, Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, said Sharon's government would be ready to reengage the Palestinians in peace talks but not until the violence ends, reported Haaretz newspaper.
"We will not do it under fire, we will not do it while terrorism is going on," said Shoval, who is due to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday after meetings with US lawmakers and White House officials, the paper added.
The Israeli delegation includes Shoval, former Israeli defense minister, Moshe Arens, and former ambassador to the United Nations, Dore Gold.
Earlier Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian parliament, warned that events now occurring risked a conflagration but welcomed Bush's reevaluation of US Middle East policy, according to AFP.
"The situation is extremely volatile," she said, urging that the Bush administration, including Powell who will visit the region later this month, make clear to Israel the consequences of escalating violence.
"The time has come for an honest and genuine assessment," Ashrawi said.
Meanwhile, Haaretz quoted Sharon as telling members of the council of Jewish settlements that he would not negotiate with the Palestinians while the violence continues in the territories.
Sharon told the settlers he had informed Bush of this vow, as well as former president Bill Clinton, Arafat as well as foreign ministers of France and Russia.
"I will act in a rational manner," Sharon said during the meeting in his Knesset offices. "I will not harm a population who remains quiet, but in those places under fire, we will use a heavy hand."
Sharon, said the paper, predicted Israel's security future would not be an easy one. He told the settlers he can hear the shooting around the Gaza Strip when he drives home to his farm in the Negev and a westerly wind is blowing.
"Did you know that the Palestinians have taken down 10 kilometers of the fence around Rafiah?" he asked the settlers.
In another development, the Labor Party central committee will meet next week to decide on joining a unity government headed by Sharon, said The Jerusalem Post newspaper.
The big question, according to the Post, is who would choose the ministers.
Defeated Prime Minister Ehud Barak is insisting that as party chairman, he is entitled to make the appointments, but Shimon Peres argues this is only true if the party chairman is also the sitting prime minister.
Party sources said the likely compromise is for Barak to appoint the ministers in consultation with Peres, and perhaps also with party secretary-general Ra'anan Cohen.
Several current ministers, including Peres, Cohen, Haim Ramon, Avraham Shochat, Dalia Itzik, Matan Vilnai and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, all want a portfolio, said the Post.
Justice minister, Yossi Beilin and foreign minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami said they will not join a Sharon government.
The Post said that Beilin is leading the opposition to a unity government within Labor, adding that he lashed out Tuesday at members of the party's negotiating team.
He said they are willing "to sell the soul of the Labor Party and kill any hope of peace" rather than lose their ministerial seats – A|bawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
