Israelis try diplomacy before new border plan

ISRAEL will try diplomacy with the Palestinians until the end of the year before resorting to a plan to set a border unilaterally in the occupied West Bank, a senior cabinet minister said yesterday.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused the Israeli army of trying to undercut negotiations by launching a rare daytime raid in the West Bank city of Ramallah in which three Palestinians were killed and more than 40 wounded.