Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stepped up pressure on the Palestinian government today, ordering his military to “do all it can” to free an abducted soldier and hinting Israel may arrest Hamas leaders in Gaza.

Arab officials today reacted with concern to the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, criticising Israel for causing suffering to Gaza residents and citing Israeli warplanes’ buzzing of the Syrian president’s home as especially troubling.

A Hamas official close to the Islamic movement’s exiled leader today described Israel’s detention of dozens of Palestinian Cabinet ministers and MPs belonging to the group as an act of hostage-taking that complicated efforts to trade a captured Israeli soldier for Arab prisoners.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza could jeopardise the life of an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants, a senior Hamas official said today.

HUNDREDS of right-wing protesters poured into a Jewish outpost yesterday, laying barbed wire and cement blocks to thwart Israeli troops preparing to uproot part of the West Bank settlement.

THE victory of Islamic militant group Hamas in Palestinian parliamentary elections last night triggered a political earthquake that could soon bury any hope for peace talks with Israel.

THE Palestinian Authority will cancel January 25 parliamentary elections if Israel goes ahead with its plan to bar Palestinians from voting in disputed Jerusalem, a senior Palestinian official said yesterday.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared today that their people would stop all violent attacks against each other, pledging to break a four year cycle of bloodshed and get peace talks back on track.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, said it will not be bound by the ceasefire, the group’s leader in Lebanon said.

Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian uprising leader jailed by Israel who is perhaps the strongest candidate to oust Yasser Arafat’s old guard of politicians, will run in presidential elections, a close aide said today.

A CAR bomb killed a suspected Hamas military chief in Damascus yesterday.

President Bush’s call to deal with Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction was studied by Arabs - some said in vain - for signs war could be avoided.

The two main militant groups fighting for Palestinian independence from Israel have rejected Yasser Arafat’s call for an end to the 15-month-old Intefadeh (uprising).