Furthermore, in today's context, it should not be forgotten for a moment that the Israelis are pursuing their policies even more intensely than ever immediately after the last visit to Washington by Sharon and his military and intelligence chiefs; and doing so with secret knowledge just what the Americans have planned for Iraq and the coming expansion of the now misnomered "War Against Terrorism".

[The Independent, UK, 22 February 2002]: The Middle East subsided further into war last night as Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, demanded that the Palestinians fully disarm and announced plans to establish barriers sealing off Palestinian areas.

In a televised speech to his nation, after a day in which Israeli armed forces launched another wave of air and ground strikes against the Palestinians, Mr Sharon made clear that he was still committed to military force by declaring that Israel would not rest until the "terrorist network" had been destroyed.

He spoke after nine more Palestinians were killed in attacks on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and a missile landed inside Mr Arafat's compound as part of Israel's continuing retaliation for a sudden upsurge of Palestinian attacks, particularly the killing of six soldiers at a checkpoint on Tuesday. Mr Sharon appealed for unity within Israel, where ­ for the first time since his election ­ he faces significant criticism from across the political spectrum caused by his failure to subdue the Palestinians and several humiliating setbacks for the Israeli army.

His speech will have disappointed the European Union, which is growing increasingly uneasy at America's apparent lack of any solutions to bring the conflict under control. The White House expressed its "deep concern" about the violence yesterday, but remained bankrupt of new ideas. Almost 50 lives have been lost so far this week.

Mr Sharon outlined a set of conditions that have no chance of success, not least because the Palestinian leadership could not enforce them, even if it wanted to do so.

They included the complete dismantling of the infrastructure of the so-called terrorist Palestinian organisations ­ a category that, in Israel's eyes, includes mainstream political groups. Nor are Palestinians ever likely to accept Mr Sharon's demand for complete disarmament "before progress can be made". He insisted that there must be a total end to Palestinian violence before he is willing to negotiate, a condition that is regarded as wholly unrealistic, and deliberately obstructive, by the international community.

But he did not demand seven days of quiet, which he has insisted on in the past, as a condition for implementing the Mitchell peace plan.

He refused to give details of the so-called buffer zones, which he said were intended to increase the security of Israelis. These were immediately seen by the Palestinians as a plan to reinforce the Israeli occupation.

They are likely to include previously revealed proposals to seal off Jerusalem with more checkpoints and trenches inside occupied Arab areas. Such measures have so far served only to deepen friction between the two sides as they increase Israel's military presence inside the occupied territories. Palestinians see the moves as part of a long-term political plan by Mr Sharon to consolidate Israel's hold over all Jerusalem ­ including its Arab eastern sector ­ and much of the West Bank.

Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian former peace negotiator, said after hearing the speech: "I am much more scared than I was half an hour ago. This is a clear-cut message that Mr Sharon wants to silence the voices of moderation and peace in Israel."

In particular, Mr Sharon made no reference to an appeal, made earlier in the day, by Mr Arafat to Palestinians to abide by the ceasefire he declared on 16 December, which was followed by several weeks of relative calm.

This may have been a tactical move by the Palestinian leader, whom Israel accused of repeatedly failing to keep his promises.

But it was coupled with the announcement from the head of Mr Arafat's intelligence services in the West Bank town of Nablus of the arrest of three men accused by Israel of assassinating its Tourism Minister, Rechavam Ze'evi, last year.

Israel has been demanding that Mr Arafat arrest the killers of the far-right 75-year-old minister, who was shot dead by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in revenge for the assassination of its leader by Israel. Mr Arafat's problems have been compounded by popular Palestinian support for the assassination of the minister, who had advocated the mass expulsion of Arabs from the occupied territories.

The arrests have been one of Mr Sharon's conditions for ending the siege of Mr Arafat's headquarters, which has prevented the latter from travelling for nearly three months. But Mr Sharon said Israel was still checking the reports of the arrests

[The Independent, UK, 21 February 2002]: Plans by Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, to use yet more military force in the occupied Palestinian territories were yesterday approved by his security cabinet as the violence in the Middle East conflict accelerated still further.

Mr Sharon won support for what he called a "new outline on the war on terror", as Israeli armed forces retaliated after the most deadly attack on its soldiers since the intifada began.

As the region grew steadily more nervous about the backwash from the worsening conflict, Mr Sharon - who is under pressure from Israel's hard right to invade the West Bank and Gaza - told his cabinet that he was opposed to dragging Israel into a fully-fledged war.

But his spokesman, Ranaan Gissin, said Israel would increase its use of "counter-terrorism" methods - a euphemism to describe the work of its death squads, which have assassinated more than 70 Palestinian suspects during the conflict despite widespread criticism. Those involved in "terrorist activity" would "always have to think about where they sleep at night", he said.

His remarks came as Israel launched missile attacks on Palestinian targets from air, land and sea after six Israeli soldiers were killed on Tuesday when Palestinian guerrillas attacked a checkpoint near Ramallah. The losses were the biggest blow of the intifada to Israel's Defence Forces, already hit by embarrassing setbacks and a reservists revolt.

The Palestinians appear to be focusing on Israel's occupation, by killing settlers and soldiers. Marwan Barghouti, a senior Fatah leader, said yesterday that the "struggle" had entered a new phase in which attacks would be mounted on Israeli checkpoints - seen by many Palestinians as one of the most punitive of the many measures levelled against them.

By last night, 18 Palestinians - mostly security personnel - had been killed in the reprisals. In all, 40 people - 10 Israelis and 30 Palestinians, including two suicide bombers - have died since Monday, making this one of the worst periods of the conflict. Israel fired a missile into Yasser Arafat's compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where he has been trapped for weeks by Israeli tanks. It landed a few yards from his office and shattered windows but he was not injured.

Although Mr Sharon has said he wished Israel had killed Mr Arafat during the 1982 siege of Beirut, he insists he has no intention of doing so now. His spokesman - reflecting American pressure - said Israel had no intention of physically harming Mr Arafat or of toppling his Palestinian Authority. However, though the Israelis have blown up a police post by his headquarters before, this was the closest attack on the Palestinian leader for years. Mr Arafat was defiant, emerging to declare that "the tanks and the missiles and the planes do not terrify us ... The Israelis insist on avoiding the peace process but we will raise the Palestinian flag on the walls of Jerusalem." Most attacks were early in the day but last night Israeli helicopters fired missiles into Palestinian security bases in Gaza City and the West Bank town of Jenin.

Amid the mess, there is little sign of diplomatic solution. Unusually, Saudi Arabia this week proposed that Arab countries normalise ties with Israel if it quit Palestinian lands occupied illegally in 1967, including the West Bank and Gaza. But it is an offer the Saudis know Mr Sharon will refuse. Israel's Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, told Saudi television that the idea was "an interesting and positive one". But he also said the basis for progress was "putting an end to terrorist activity", meaning Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

[21 February 2002 - Associated Press]: Israeli tanks and troops entered Gaza early today killing five Palestinians, as Israeli retaliatory strikes intensified.

Entering Gaza City for the first time in nearly 17 months of conflict, tanks went into Sejaieh neighborhood, which straddles the main north-south road through the Gaza Strip, and approached Beach camp, a sprawling refugee complex.

On a hilltop in Sejaieh, troops blew up a local broadcasting station and residents all over the city could see the transmission tower collapse, putting Palestine TV off the air for about an hour.

Shortly before dawn an Israeli helicopter fired at least one rocket at a building in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah, the army said. No casualties were reported.

In a statement, the army's spokesman unit confirmed the attacks and said they were part of a continued response to Palestinian attacks. Residents said Israeli troops pulled out of Gaza City after three hours.

Loudspeakers on mosques called on Palestinians to confront the Israeli invaders, and police and gunmen raced to the scene of the incursions. The sound of heavy gunfire reverberated all over the city: two police were hurt, doctors said.

In southern Gaza, residents said Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered the Rafah refugee camp after midnight and destroyed the house of a militant said to have killed an Israeli woman and two soldiers on Monday, before he was killed by troops. Doctors said four people were killed and 35 wounded by bullets in the incursion. Another was killed at daybreak near the border, witnesses said.

Gaza Public Security chief Maj. Gen. Abdel Razek Majaidie denounced the Israeli incursions as "escalated aggression." He told The Associated Press, "No one can impose or dictate his will on the Palestinian people."

A few hours earlier, Israeli warplanes and helicopters struck Palestinian police structures in Gaza and the West Bank, at the end of a full day of reprisals for a series of Palestinian attacks, including a surprise assault on a West Bank checkpoint in which six Israeli soldiers were killed on Wednesday. In all, 18 Palestinians were killed yesterday.

The roadblock assault appeared to mark a turning point in tactics for both sides. Palestinians said the assault reflected a new focus on targeting Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza as opposed to attacks within Israel itself.

Militants would redirect attacks against settlers and soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza and scale down operations inside Israel, said several Palestinians close to the militant groups.

In response, Israeli officials said they would relate to the conflict as a guerrilla war. Up to now the Israelis have referred to the violence as terrorism, as opposed to guerrilla warfare, implying clashes between irregular forces and Israel's army.

Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said tactics would include small, commando-style raids and more targeted killings of militants suspected of involvement in terrorism against Israelis, but Israel would not target Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, even though it blames him for failing to stop the violence.

Mr Sharon said that Israeli pressure on Arafat is meant to speed his replacement by other leaders. "The heavier the pressure will be, the shorter will be the time when we will perhaps have someone else to negotiate," Sharon told U.S. Jewish leaders, calling Arafat "irrelevant."