The figure responsible for Israel’s latest religious row is a bespectacled British teenager who is gifted with magical powers, world famous and entirely fictional.

Three Palestinians were killed today as Israeli tanks moved deeper into West Bank towns, tightening their grip on biblical Bethlehem and five other towns in the widest operation against the Palestinians in years.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today rejected a proposal that his foreign minister meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, saying there can be no negotiations as long as sporadic violence continues.