No sooner had a semblance of calm been restored to the tense frontier between the Israeli neighbourhood of Gilo and the Palestinian town of Beit Jala at Jerusalem's southern edge yesterday, than new violence broke out elsewhere in the West Bank - with two Palestinians and one Israeli killed. The Israeli army was also placed on alert amid fears of a Hizbullah attack on the Lebanon border.
Before dawn yesterday, a little more than 48 hours after they had entered, Israeli troops pulled out of Beit Jala - under a ceasefire deal reached between the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, and the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres. Predictably, each side claimed to have prevailed in the confrontation: Israel's Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, said that the troops were leaving because they had carried out "a very successful operation" - putting a halt to months of Palestinian gunfire across the valley at Gilo, a district regarded by Israel as part of its sovereign Jerusalem, and by the Palestinians as occupied West Bank territory. The very same forces, the defence minister noted, were now encamped just outside Beit Jala and neighbouring Bethlehem, and would be called into action if gunfire resumed.
By contrast, Mr Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, a top aide to Mr Arafat, described the army's incursion as an "adventure" that had failed, and claimed there had been no agreement to facilitate the pullout, but rather that Israel had capitulated to international pressure. On the ground, too, Palestinian gunmen who had been battling the troops celebrated the "success" of their resistance, firing shots into the air and distributing sweets.
But for the ordinary residents on both sides of this battlefront there was little joy and plenty of wariness. Neither the Christians of Beit Jala, nor the predominantly working-class Israelis of Gilo, had anticipated that they would find themselves on the front-line of the intifada, and there is every expectation that the precious quiet will be violated again soon.
Nevertheless, some Israeli and Palestinian politicians are expressing mild, and most rare, optimism: Mr Peres had been hailing the success of the "truce" as early as Wednesday afternoon, when shots were still ringing out across the valley, and predicting that it might pave the way for a wider ceasefire. Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, Mr Arafat's Information Minister, yesterday echoed the sentiment, speaking about a possible Arafat-Peres meeting next week, and urging Israel not to respond "with shelling and artillery" if there happened to be "a bullet here or a bullet there". He said the Palestinian Authority had done its best "in order to guarantee a ceasefire". Barely had the Israeli pullout been completed, however, than violence erupted elsewhere in the West Bank.
In Hebron, Israel soldiers and Palestinian gunmen fought street battles, and a Palestinian doctor, Dr Mose Ikdemat, was killed by Israeli gunfire. In Tulkarm, further north, a Palestinian gunman, Mr Dawoud Fahmawy, was shot dead.
In the Palestinian village of Na'alin, an Israeli man, Mr Amos Tajouri, was killed in a restaurant owned by Palestinian friends. Mr Tajouri had helped the owners with the business, and ate there regularly. Last night in northern Gaza, a member of Mr Arafat's elite Force 17 was gunned down and three other members were wounded by Israeli tank fire.
In northern Israel, police went on alert after receiving information that a suicide bomber had been dispatched to the region. And the army was taking what were described as "precautionary measures" concerning a possible Hizbullah attack on the Lebanon border. Military officials gave no further details.