Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Hawkish right-wing leader Ariel Sharon are trying hard to form an emergency government amid more bloodshed and increased tension in the Middle East. Barak and Sharon failed, in formal talks on Monday, to agree to form a government in the face of increasing nervousness in the region.

“Amid the continuing violence, US forces in the gulf have been put on a higher state of alert in response to specific information,” a senior US defence official said without elaborating.
Israel has suspended peace talks with the Palestinians, and an Israeli military chief warned that the country was ready, if necessary, for war.
Arab solidarity with the Palestinians was also ratcheted up on Monday.
Morocco announced it was breaking all diplomatic ties with Israel. Rabat`s move follows a similar decision by Tunisia taken at the Arab summit in Cairo over the weekend.

The bloody clashes between Israeli troops and armed Palestinian activists continued on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, regardless of the political and military moves.
Another Palestinian was killed by a shell fired by Israeli soldiers in the west bank town of Hebron in an incident that also left the man`s four children wounded.

Two more Palestinian teenagers died on Monday of injuries sustained after being hit last week by Israeli gunfire taking the death toll from three-and-a-half-weeks of violence thereby to 135.

Bureau Report