Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to meet key Cabinet ministers today to decide whether to allow Yasser Arafat to attend this week’s crucial Arab summit in Beirut.

The US has presented proposals to overcome Israeli and Palestinian differences about a truce agreement.

Israeli troops have shot and killed two Palestinians who attacked an army post with grenades, and militant Islamic groups said they would ignore any truce deal, complicating US efforts to arrange a ceasefire.

As Mideast truce talks resumed today, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated his deadly package at an Israeli military checkpoint in the West Bank, killing himself and wounding an officer.

Israel and the Palestinians were tonight heading toward a ceasefire deal and it appeared Israel might withdraw its troops from the West Bank town of Bethlehem before midnight.

Israeli troops pulled out of the Bethlehem area early today, Palestinians said, boosting chances for a truce to end nearly 18 months of violence.

America’s vice president Dick Cheney was today visiting Israel to throw his weight behind a US peace plan, after another day of Middle East bloodshed.

Israeli tanks pulled out of three Palestinian towns in the West Bank early today, just hours after US envoy Anthony Zinni arrived in the Middle East in an attempt to broker a ceasefire.

Palestinian security officials said the 250 Israeli tanks that moved into Ramallah on Tuesday, paralysing the West Bank commercial and administrative centre, began rolling out of the town and the adjacent Amari refugee camp after 2am.

Israel has intensified its military offensive by killing at least 21 Palestinians in raids in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Israeli troops and tanks moved into a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Ramallah early today, killing at least 17 Palestinians in their largest offensive in 17 months of conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he is ready to lift the virtual house arrest of Yasser Arafat, but military strikes against Palestinian targets will go on.

Israeli forces killed 32 Palestinians today, including two children and a general - the deadliest day in 17 months of fighting.

Hundreds of Palestinian gunmen have converged on a hospital in Gaza after a top security commander was killed.

Twenty Palestinians, including a top commander, were killed in Israeli raids before daybreak today in the West Bank and Gaza, after a Palestinian gunman infiltrated into a Jewish settlement in Gaza and killed five Israelis, one of the bloodiest days in 17 months of fighting.

Palestinian gunmen shot dead an Israeli soldier and wounded another in a retaliatory shooting hours after a Palestinian militia leader was killed by a bomb as he emerged from his West Bank hideout.

Anthony Zinni, Washington’s Middle East peace envoy, ended a four-day mission today without a formal truce agreement.

Israel today displayed 50 tons of missiles, mortars, and mines seized on a ship and accused the Palestinians of plotting ‘‘the next wave of terror’’.

A U.S. truce envoy pressed ahead with his mission today amid new Israeli charges that the Palestinian Authority is engaged in terrorism and tried to smuggle 50 tons of Iranian-made rockets and other weapons into the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli soldiers have killed at least one Palestinian in a raid on the village of Tel in the West Bank today.

Israel withdrew from two West bank towns and lifted some Palestinian travel restrictions today.

Ariel Sharon’s advisers have today claimed that the Palestinians have not yet met the Israeli Prime Minister’s condition for a formal truce - a week without attacks.

US envoy Anthony Zinni is returning to the Middle East for a second mission aimed at reaching an Israeli-Palestinian truce and relaunching peace talks.

The diplomat leading US efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians is to return to brief American officials.

Israeli troops and tanks searching for militants today charged into Palestinian areas at the northern and southern ends of the Gaza Strip before dawn.

Israeli helicopters and planes pounded Palestinian buildings for the second straight day after Israel cut off contacts with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in response to Islamic militant attacks.

Israeli helicopters hit a Gaza refugee camp with missiles twice, killing three Palestinians and wounding 20, witnesses and doctors said.

Israeli attack helicopters struck a Palestinian police post in northern Gaza early today after Palestinians fired mortars at Jewish settlements.

The Israeli military has tightened travel restrictions in the wake of the weekend's devastating suicide bomb attacks.

President George W Bush today condemned suicide bomber attacks in Israel ahead of an emergency meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

A US peace envoy today said violence between Israelis and Palestinians will not deter him from his mission, and that he will stay in the region ‘‘as long as it takes’’.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is arguing with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon over his security demands.