YOUR headline ‘Israeli police storm Temple Mount as Sharon threatens Arafat’ (Irish Examiner, April 3) was misleading and there is no connection between the two points mentioned.

Israeli troops swept into the West Bank town of Jenin today, arresting at least 15 Palestinians and trading gunfire with militants.

ISRAEL plans to kill more militant chiefs in raids mirroring a lethal missile strike on a top Hamas leader, Israeli officials warned yesterday.

Palestinian officials today said they had resolved a dispute over 17 militants held at gunpoint in Yasser Arafat’s compound, and that the men would not be moving to Jericho as desired by Israel.

A joint truce declaration by Palestinian militias, initially expected today, has been delayed, a Palestinian Cabinet minister said.

THE family of a young British Muslim blamed by Israeli police for a suicide attack on a seafront bar in Tel Aviv yesterday spoke of their shock.

Israeli troops seized suspected Palestinian weapons-makers in the deepest incursion into Gaza City in two years today and surrounded the West Bank hideout of the alleged mastermind of a shooting attack on a kibbutz.

Thousands of Palestinians, many defying military curfews, poured into West Bank and Gaza streets today to protest Israel’s assault on Yasser Arafat’s headquarters, and four demonstrators were killed by army fire.

ISRAELI soldiers blew up three buildings in Yasser Arafat compound yesterday, rocking the office where he was holed up and sending huge clouds of smoke into the air.

An explosion, apparently triggered prematurely by militants making a bomb, tore through a house in Gaza today, killing three people.

Packets of crisps are being sold in Egypt bearing the image of Yasser Arafat.

A security guard at an Israeli nightclub has shot and killed a suspected Palestinian militant who was allegedly attempting to drive a car bomb into the building in Tel Aviv.

The outlines of an agreement to resolve the 35-day standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem were taking shape today, but the sides remained at odds on several issues including how many of the wanted Palestinians inside the Christian shrine would be deported.

Israeli forces hammered Yasser Arafat’s office and police compounds in Gaza and police buildings in the West Bank, killing 12, after six soldiers were killed in a Palestinian attack.

Wafa Idris, the Palestinian’s first female suicide bomber who blew herself up at the weekend, was a former volunteer paramedic who had been hit three times by Israeli rubber bullets.

Palestinian and Israeli security commanders have resumed their meetings, signalling a softening of an Israeli policy breaking off contact with the Palestinian Authority after a string of suicide attacks.

Security officials say four Palestinians have been killed during an Israeli raid on a West Bank village.

Israel was ready to pull its troops out of Bethlehem today if Palestinian gunfire stops, a senior official said.

Israeli-Palestinian violence was escalating again despite US appeals for calm, with six Palestinians and one Israeli dead in a series of incidents two days after the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister.

Israeli helicopters today hovered near Arafat’s headquarters in Gaza City, but eventually left without firing.

Palestinians are claiming one of their leaders, who narrowly escaped death after two missiles landed near his car in the West Bank, was the target of an assassination attempt.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres held unscheduled talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Cairo today after assuring the Egyptian president that his government planned no major assault on the Palestinians.