Breaking on the BBC news ticker. More when available.

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2001

Answers

I thought they had already "retaliated". It didn't seem to amount to much.

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2001

BBC dnesday, 18 July, 2001, 01:45 GMT 02:45 UK Israeli troops mass in West Bank

The Israeli army has begun sending infantry and armoured vehicles to the West Bank in what it says is a response to escalating Palestinian-Israeli violence.

An army statement said the deployment of troops, who have not so far entered Palestinian-controlled areas, was a response to Tuesday's "flagrant violation" of the two sides' tattered ceasefire.

It comes after some of the worst violence in the region in recent months, including a suicide bombing and mortar attacks by Palestinians and Israeli helicopter strikes.

The BBC's Frank Gardner in Jerusalem says that the mobilisation may be just a threat or bluff, but that it could also be a prelude to an invasion of the West Bank - which would essentially be a declaration of war.

Whether there was intent to use the troops or not, he added, the mobilisation was "the most serious move in many days, if not weeks".

Senior Palestinians were quick to warn that Israel's actions were pushing the region towards disaster.

"These reinforcements, tanks and military units are pushing the fragile situation to the edge of explosion," Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, an aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said.

Discussions

Israeli leaders are reported to be meeting overnight to discuss the situation. An army spokeswoman refused to say if the troops would be sent into Palestinian-controlled areas.

The mobilisation comes after at least four Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli helicopter strike.

Israeli military sources said that the targets had been planning a bomb attack on the Maccabiah Games, an international Jewish sporting event which opened on Monday evening in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Authority immediately condemned the attack as an "act of war perpetrated by the Israeli Government against the unarmed and innocent Palestinian population".

Mortar bomb

Just a few hours later, a mortar bomb was fired at the Jewish settlement of Gilo in what the Israeli army says is the first attack from the West Bank since the latest Palestinian uprising began in September 2000.

There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

Palestinian sources said the helicopters struck a house in the town of Bethlehem belonging to the Fatah movement of Mr Arafat.

A coalition of Palestinian groups known as the National and Islamic Forces was quoted as saying they would avenge it, and that every settler and soldier was now a target.

Two of the men killed in the strike, named as Omar Saadeh and Taha Aruj, are believed to be activists of the Islamic militant group Hamas. The other two were Mohammed and Eshak Saadeh, relatives of Omar Saadeh.

The strike followed an overnight attack by Israeli tanks on Palestinian checkpoints in the town of Jenin and Tulkarem in retaliation for a suicide bomb attack in northern Israel.

The bomber blew himself up near a train station in the town of Binyamina on Monday evening, killing two Israelis, a male and a female soldier, and injuring at least eight others.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001