Israel last night failed in an apparent attempt to assassinate some of the leading militants of the radical Hamas group, including the man it alleges is the leader of the Hamas "military wing", responsible for organising a series of suicide bombings dating back to the mid-1990s.
The attack came amid a further escalation of violence, which saw at least six Palestinians killed in the space of 24 hours, and despite the continuing efforts of the German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, to arrange for ceasefire talks between the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, and the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres.
The apparent assassination attempt took place in Gaza's Bureij refugee camp. Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at a car, and killed Mr Bilal al-Rul (23), a member of Mr Arafat's Preventative Security force. Travelling in the car immediately behind his were Mr al-Rul's father, Adnan - alleged by Israel to be a Hamas bombmaker - as well as Mr Mohammad Deif, the head of the Hamas military wing, and several other key militants.
Initial reports suggested that Mr Adnan al-Rul was also killed in the missile strike, but it is now thought that all occupants of the second car escaped unharmed.
Israeli military sources confirmed the missile fire - saying that it had been directed at a vehicle whose occupants were en route to fire mortar shells at Jewish settlements - but denied all knowledge of any wider significance to the helicopter strike.
Other Israeli sources, however, indicated that the attack was based on "hard intelligence" about a rare get-together of leading Hamas militants, and that the escape of these militants represented a costly "operational failure". Hamas leaders claimed that a total of four missiles were fired at both vehicles. Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, has publicly acknowledged maintaining a policy of "targeted strikes" against those Israel alleges are orchestrating attacks.
The Gaza violence culminated yet another day of bloodshed. Overnight, Israeli troops had opened fire on three Palestinians whom, both Israeli and Palestinian sources agreed, were attempting to plant a bomb, later defused, on a road leading to an army base outside the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank - a familiar target for such devices.
Israel says that two of the bombers were killed, and that a second group of three bombers, with a second device, then arrived at the same spot, and were shot dead as well.
Palestinian officials said, however, that only one man died in the initial shooting, Mr Maher Faras, and that the troops then killed three civilians who had merely been attempting to retrieve the body and, later in the day, a teenage boy who was not involved in the incident at all.
Thousands of Palestinians attended the funerals of the dead men in Nablus, and Mr Arafat's Fatah faction, of which Mr Faras was a member, vowed to avenge their deaths. Also yesterday, Israel fired missiles at a Palestinian police position in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, destroying it.
The army said the attack came in retaliation for Palestinian mortar fire at nearby Jewish settlements. Palestinian officials denied that there had been any such mortar fire.
Near Jenin, in the West Bank, meanwhile, four Israelis in a garbage truck were injured when they came under fire from a Palestinian residence near the road.
Palestinian gunmen also fired on Israeli army positions outside Bethlehem last night, and there were exchanges of fire in and around Ramallah.
Against this gruesome background, Mr Arafat, meeting Arab foreign ministers in Cairo, urged them to take a tougher stance against "the Israeli aggression" - an allusion to the refusal of both Egypt and Jordan to suspend their ties with the Jewish state.