Middle East slips towards war as Arafat peace offer rebuffed

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Hated checkpoints top list of Palestinian targets

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.

Today a Palestinian tried to set off a bomb in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, wounding a woman, before being shot and killed.

The attacker entered the supermarket in the West Bank settlement of Efrat and tried to set off an explosive, according to store manager Eli Shiran. He said a shopper pulled a gun and shot him dead.

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 thatis 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.