Israeli helicopter gunships struck a Palestinian government compound in the southern Gaza Strip today, driving home Israel's demand that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat do more to rein in militants.
The missile attack in the early hours devastated the Rafah offices of the Palestinian intelligence services and Force 17, Mr Arafat's bodyguard unit, hours after a new round of US-brokered security talks which both sides described as difficult.
There were no immediate reports of casualties. A Palestinian official said the compound had been evacuated in anticipation of the attack, the latest Israeli retaliation after Palestinian suicide bombers killed 25 people in Israel last weekend.
Palestinians gathered at the scene of the ruined two-storey building, picking over fragments of missiles. Witnesses said three helicopters fired at least five missiles.
This is a war against the Palestinian people, an unfair war, said one Palestinian official, adding that the latest attack was against efforts of peace the Americans and the rest of the world are trying to achieve.
Yesterday, Israeli F-16 warplanes bombed the Palestinian Authority's main police headquarters in Gaza City, wounding at least 18 people.
Israel says it will keep up its strikes until Mr Arafat acts against militants threatening the Jewish state's security in the 15-month-old Palestinian uprising against occupation.
Indicating the difficulty on reaching agreement on how to quell the violence, a senior Palestinian security official said yesterday's talks, brokered by US envoy Anthony Zinni, almost degenerated into a brawl.
They were very difficult talks, and the Israelis were trying to dictate and give us orders. There was almost a fist fight and we were shouting at each other, the official said.
An Israeli official, who also described the meeting as difficult, said Israeli security chiefs rejected a Palestinian request that they ease the pressure on the occupied territories until Mr Arafat clamped down on militants.
Palestinians said they were still awaiting a response to specific demands, expected at a meeting scheduled for tomorrow.
The Palestinian official said the demands included stopping the Israeli assassination of activists, ending the blockade and re-occupation of Palestinian areas and halting attacks on Palestinian installations so a campaign of arrests can continue.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has accused Arafat of making token arrests in response to Israeli and US demands for a crackdown on militants.
"Palestinians have had 15 months to get their act together. Instead they have waged a terror campaign led by Arafat," a senior foreign ministry official, Aryeh Mekel, told Reuters.
A US embassy statement issued after the talks said they focused on practical steps to combat terror and violence.
In a rare interview with Israeli television, Mr Arafat said last night he was doing all he could to arrest militants. He said he had so far arrested 17 people on the list of 33 given to him by Mr Zinni, along with dozens of others.
When the Israeli interviewer suggested the United States saw the arrests as a sham, Mr Arafat became visibly agitated: "Who cares about the Americans? The Americans are on your side and they gave you everything.
"Who gave you the planes?...Who gave you the tanks?...Who gave you all the money?," he said.
The Israeli army said the Rafah strike and yesterday's attack in Gaza City was in response to Palestinian mortar attacks against Israeli settlements and military targets in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian security services whose offices were hit today had direct or indirect responsibility for the mortar attacks, an army statement said.
Palestinian security official rejected the charge.
The security services which were hit had been working to spread security and stability in the Palestinian territories and to maintain the ceasefire, said Major-General Abdel-Razek Al-Majaydeh, Palestinian Authority public security chief.
The Israeli army also said it killed two Palestinian gunmen near Adik village in the West Bank yesterday. The army said soldiers intercepted the armed men when they came to a road in the area where there have been numerous shooting attacks.
In a statement today, a Palestinian Authority spokesman condemned what he described as the assassination by the occupying Israeli forces of the two men.
At least 750 Palestinians and 222 Israelis have died since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September 2000.