Israel warned over separation fence as Syria threatens revenge

Days before the UN Security Council is due to debate Israel's "separation fence" in the West Bank, the Palestinians warned yesterday that if the fence is allowed to go ahead, it will mean "the end of the two-state solution" envisaged by President Bush.

Fears are growing, not only for what remains of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, but for the stability of the whole Middle East. The war of words between Syria and Israel after an Israeli air strike near Damascus intensified yesterday, with Syria threatening retaliation and Israel declaring it considered Syria a "legitimate target".

In the Gaza Strip, the biggest Israeli military operation in three months continued as soldiers demolished houses and took over a strip of Rafah refugee camp next to the border with Egypt. Another Palestinian was killed overnight, bringing the number of Palestinians dead in the operation to eight, two of them children.

The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, is in chaos. There are serious doubts over President Yasser Arafat's health, amid rumours he has suffered a mild heart attack or has stomach cancer. What is clear is that he is visibly in bad health, and two teams of doctors are in attendance at his Muqata headquarters.

But he has been up to an explosive row over the newly appointed cabinet that has Ahmad Qureia threatening to become the second Palestinian Prime Minister to resign in as many months. The roadmap peace plan, personally backed by President Bush, looks all but consigned to history.

"We are approaching the moment of truth," the Palestinian envoy to the UN, Nasser al-Kidwa, warned yesterday as the Security Council scheduled an open discussion on Israel's separation fence for Tuesday. Israel claims the series of concrete walls and metal fences is to stop suicide bombers crossing. But its route cuts deep into the West Bank so Jewish settlements can be on the "Israeli" side and observers, including the US National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, say it looks like an attempt to establish a new border.

If Israel doesn't stop building the fence, Mr al-Kidwa said, "this will mean the end of the two-state solution, and that will take us either to more drastic and radical solutions or a perpetual conflict. It should be looked at that seriously. It is not just another event."

However, the US is warning it may veto a draft Security Council resolution condemning the project. John Negroponte, the US ambassador to the UN, said: "We don't think that ... one-sided resolutions of this kind serve any useful purpose, even though we also recognise that we have our own reservations about Israeli actions with respect to construction of the wall."

The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, condemned the military operation in the Gaza Strip yesterday, warning Israel "not for the first time ... that the disproportionate use of force in densely populated areas is not compatible with international humanitarian law". But with the US backing Israel ever more firmly, Mr Annan's warnings will have little resonance here.

The decisive moment of the week was when Mr Bush came out in favour of Israel's air strike on Syria - albeit with a gentle admonition to Israel to avoid "escalation". The President made his personal view clear, adding that "Israel must not feel constrained in terms of defending the homeland".

The row over that air strike - the first Israeli attack deep inside Syria for 30 years -- heated up again yesterday. A Syrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Bushra Kanafani, warned: "In case of a repetition Syria has the right to exercise self-defence." Israel immediately responded, with a spokesman for its Foreign Ministry, Gideon Meir, declaring: "Israel views every state which is harbouring terrorist organisations, and the leaders of those terrorist organisations, who are attacking innocent citizens of Israel, as legitimate targets out of self-defence".

Israel said the bombing was in retaliation for the 4 October suicide bombing in Haifa, in which 20 people died, and claimed the targeted area was a training camp used by the militant group Islamic Jihad. But it quickly became apparent the camp was disused at the time of the strike. Another Palestinian militant group said it had been out of use for years. But the US and Israel claim to have evidence it was in use more recently.