Condemning the Palestinian militants who have carried out several attacks inside Israel since he arrived here earlier this week, the Bush administration's new Middle East envoy, Gen Anthony Zinni, said yesterday that their actions would not thwart his peacmaking mission, and that he would remain in the region for "as long as it takes" to broker a ceasefire.
Also yesterday, a leading international human rights group accused Mr Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority of routinely torturing prisoners, and said his security forces operated above the law.
The fundamentalist Islamic Jihad has taken responsibility for the latest attack in Israel, a suicide bombing on a bus heading for Tel Aviv on Thursday night in which three Israeli passengers were killed. Vowing to carry out more bombings, the group said in a statement that, "all the security checkpoints the Zionists put up every day will not keep our heroic mujahideen from reaching the depth of Zionist settlement, to sow fear and death in the hearts of the murderous usurpers."
The bomber, Samer Abu Suleiman, who came from a village near Jenin in the West Bank, made the now traditional video before setting out on his mission, citing among his reasons Israel's killing last week of a leading Hamas militant and the killing of civilians in Afghanistan.
When news of his "success" reached Jenin, several thousand residents were reported to have rallied in the streets in celebration, chanting that the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, should "prepare the body bags."
The Jenin area has proved a fertile breeding ground for suicide bombers in recent months. Israel recently reoccupied Palestinian territory in the city for several weeks, but withdrew its forces earlier this week in what was seen as a goodwill gesture to Gen Zinni.
Although the troops remain in the Jenin area, some right-wing Israeli politicians have cited the military pullback as a factor both in Thursday's bombing and in an attack in the city of Afula on Monday, in which two Israelis were shot dead by Palestinian gunmen.
Mr Sharon has been adamant that Mr Arafat could easily track down and arrest key militants and thus thwart such attacks, but that while he promises to act, the Palestinian president neither wishes nor intends to do so.
Mr Arafat has been insistent that he is making a "100 per cent effort" to prevent attacks, and charges that Israel's policy of killing alleged militants, and its refusal to resume peace negotiations so long as violence continues, are fuelling the conflict. In what some Israeli analysts interpreted as veiled endorsement of Mr Sharon's position, Gen Zinni said yesterday: "I am not committed to work for words, I am committed to work for action on the ground."
In talks with President Katsav, Gen Zinni reportedly said he did not intend to act as "a judge", but rather to bind both sides to "mechanisms" that would reduce violence and boost security.
Yesterday's report by Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, charged that the Palestinian Authority was detaining some 450 people without trial, and that several prisoners had died after torture. Prisoners are beaten on the soles of their feet, suspended from the ceiling by their wrists, and forced to sit or stand in painful positions for extended periods.
The report also noted that the authority had made no serious efforts to identify the men responsible for killing at least 30 alleged "collaborators" with Israel in the past 14 months.
Indeed, according to a local Palestinian human rights activist, Mr Bassam Eid, the authority arrests and tortures alleged collaborators itself, especially those believed to have helped Israel track down and kill alleged Intifada militants.
The damming report - the first in four years to focus on the authority, after a series of highly critical reports by various human rights groups on Israeli violations - also endorses a long-held Israeli claim that Mr Arafat operates a "revolving door" policy for alleged militants.