Bolstered by what it perceives as growing international tolerance for its military policies in the West Bank, Israel yesterday killed two more alleged Hamas militants and captured a third as its troop presence in Palestinian cities entered a third week.
US calls for Israel to withdraw its forces from Palestinian cities have become more muted this week, and the visiting British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, made no such public demand at all - neither at his joint press conference with the Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, in Jerusalem in the early afternoon, nor at a similar event with the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, later on.
Israeli officials attributed particular importance to what they called the "targeted killing" yesterday, by missiles fired from its assault helicopters, of two Hamas members, Yasser Atsidah and Fahmi Abu Isha, as they travelled in a Palestinian taxi outside Tulkarm.
Atsidah, who was jailed by the Palestinian Authority in 1998 for the murders of two Israelis but released last year, had been about to blow himself up in an attack inside Israel, and Abu Isha had been scheduled to deliver him to his intended bombing location, the officials said.
In the wake of the missile strike, Israeli police and security forces began dismantling roadblocks and eased a three-day alert they had been maintaining in parts of north and central Israel in an effort to thwart the bombing. The officials also reported last night that a third Hamas member had been arrested in the Hebron area.
Palestinian officials, noting that Israel has dramatically increased the number of attacks on alleged militants since the October 17th assassination in Jerusalem of its Tourism Minister, Mr Rehavam Ze'evi, argue that doing so only heightens the motivation to attack Israel among radical groups.
Mr Sharon is bent on "sabotaging all the efforts that have been exerted by the Palestinian Authority to secure the ceasefire," said Mr Ahmad Abdel Rahman, the Palestinian cabinet secretary, yesterday.
Gen Moshe Ya'alon, the Israeli army's deputy chief of staff, retorted that Israel would halt such attacks as soon as the Palestinian Authority arrested such militants.