JERUSALEM, (Islamweb & Agencies) - Israel and the Palestinians turned up the rhetoric on Tuesday with each accusing the other of murder and a lack of will for peace, as an unsteady US-brokered ceasefire seemed finally to have run out of hope. (Read photo caption below).
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's true intention was to "crush" his people through military might, while Israel countered Arafat was siding with what it calls Iranian- and Syrian- backed "terrorists" in Lebanon.
"The (Israeli) goal is to crush the Palestinians militarily," Arafat told reporters in Egypt after meeting with Arab League chief Amr Mussa for urgent talks on the rapidly deteriorating situation
The backdrop to the harsh exchange was the discovery of the bullet-riddled corpse of 51-year-old Yair Har Sinai, an Israeli shepherd whose body was found in the West Bank after he went missing Monday evening.
But Israeli government ministers said after a security cabinet meeting, called to assess Israel's position after the latest violence, that the attacks were a legitimate part of Israel's "active self-defence" policy.
The Palestinians say around 40 of their side have been killed in targetted attacks since the Palestinian uprising or intifada against Israeli occupation of Arab lands began in late September.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres warned he could step down if Sharon's government does not stop trying to undermine Arafat.
A top Sharon aide said Israel was concerned the conflict threatened to engulf the region, charging Iran had missiles in Lebanon with the approval of Beirut's main powerbroker, Syria.
The Hezbollah seriously wounded an Israeli occupation soldier in the disputed Shebaa Farms border area on Friday, and have killed three Israeli soldiers and kidnapped three others since the intifada began.
Hezbollah also attacked an Israeli radar station after Israeli warplanes destroyed a Syrian radar post in Lebanon.
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
Israeli occupation soldiers stop a truck at a temporary occupation army checkpoint July 3, 2001 near the illegal Jewish settlement Sussiya in the West Bank to protect internationally illegal settlers taking part in a funeral service for a slain settler who was shot and killed the previous evening by Palestinian Resistance men. (Reinhard Krause/Reuters)