The United Nations Security Council met last night in an emergency session after Israel raided what it said was a terrorist training camp deep inside Syria, writes David Horovitz, in Jerusalem
The Israeli response to a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed 19 Israelis in Haifa on Saturday prompted the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to declare a state of emergency in Palestinian areas as he faces an Israeli threat to remove him.
The Syrian government protested at what it called a "grave escalation" of regional tension, and demanded the Security Council debate.
However, its foreign minister, Mr Farouq a-Sharaa, indicated Syria did not wish to be drawn into direct military confrontation with Israel and would exercise restraint.
The Israeli government, too, made clear that it was not seeking a wider conflict with Syria, although it indicated that it might send warplanes into Syria again or into any country in the region that harboured, trained and supported terrorists, according to one official.
Last night, Hamas threatened to avenge the attack. "Any assault on any Arab and Muslim country is an assault on the Palestinian people, part of the Arab and Muslim nation," it said. "\ response to this serious escalation will be one of deterrence and it will happen soon in the depths of the criminal Zionist entity."
Mr Ra'anan Gissin, chief spokesman for Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said of the raid on the Ein Saheb camp 10 miles north-west of Damascus: "This was a measured response. We did not attack Syrian targets, but very specific camps used to train terrorists."
Mr Gissin said the camp, where one man was reported injured in the raid, was used by several Palestinian groups, including Islamic Jihad, which took responsibility for Saturday's suicide bombing in Haifa. A leader of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said Ein Saheb was one of its deserted bases, and Islamic Jihad said it did not use the camp. Israeli spokesmen dismissed the denials, however, and the Israeli army released footage of weapons stores at the camp.
In the US, White House officials last night urged all sides to "avoid actions that could lead to hostilities", but added that Syria had been on "the wrong side of the war on terror" and needed to "stop harbouring terrorists".
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak condemned the Israeli response in Syria, describing it as "aggression against a brotherly state under the pretext that some organisations exist there".
Saturday's suicide bomber, Hanadi Jaradat, a 29-year-old from the West Bank city of Hebron, got past a security guard and walked into the middle of a packed beachfront restaurant before detonating explosives concealed on her body. The blast wrecked the restaurant, which was jointly owned and frequented by Jews and Arabs. There were four Arabs among the 19 dead. Four children were also killed, and there were dozens of people injured.
Many of the fatalities came from just two families - five from the Zer-Aviv family, who were from a nearby Kibbutz, and four from the Almog family from Haifa.
The suicide bomber's relatives said she was apparently bent on avenging the deaths of her brother and her cousin, Islamic Jihad activists who were killed by Israeli troops in June.
Mr Arafat, and his incoming Prime Minister Ahmed Korei, condemned the bombing. Mr Korei telephoned the Jewish mayor of Haifa, and the head of an Arab local council where two of the victims lived, to express his condolences.
Israeli troops destroyed the Jaradat family's home yesterday, in what they said was an effort to deter other bombers.
Israel essentially closes down for Yom Kippur - the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar - and discussion of further possible Israeli action was therefore postponed until this evening.