Israeli troops are maintaining positions surrounding the West Bank city of Jenin, completely cutting it off, in what military officials say is an open-ended operation intended to try and halt a series of suicide bombings in Israel orchestrated by Islamic activists in the city.
The latest bombing, in the northern town of Nahariya on Sunday, in which three Israelis were killed, was carried out by an Israeli Arab who, officials say, was recruited and given his explosives in Jenin.
The Israeli military presence - at least partially on what is supposed to be Palestinian-held territory - led to intermittent gun-battles yesterday, with Israeli tanks firing shells and Palestinian reports of two people killed. Overnight, two border policemen were shot dead by Palestinian gunmen at the entrance to their base. A group associated with Mr Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction claimed responsibility for the killings.
The blockade of Jenin was described by some Israeli officials as being similar to last month's military action in the town of Beit Jala south of Jerusalem - during which the army occupied a portion of the town for two days and left after Mr Arafat's Palestinian Authority had agreed a deal with Israel under which there would be no further Palestinian gunfire on the nearby Israeli homes of Gilo.
Mr Arafat is set to fly to Damascus today - although the visit could be affected by fall-out from the attacks in the US - and there seems little prospect of his much-delayed meeting with Mr Peres taking place in the next day or so.
Palestinian officials are protesting that the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, does not want to meet Mr Arafat in Egypt, but rather on the Gaza border. And leading Israeli politicians are expressing growing doubts about the efficacy of such talks. There is also a clamour on the Israeli right, where Mr Arafat is broadly perceived as having made a strategic decision to re-embrace terrorism, for him to be returned to exile.