Hours after a Palestinian gunman brought the Intifada to the doorstep of the Israeli defence establishment in the heart of Tel Aviv yesterday, Israel assassinated a Hamas militant. It alleged the militant was delivering explosives to two potential suicide bombers.
Then after nightfall, Palestinian gunmen shot at a car carrying a Jewish settler family in the West Bank, killing a woman passenger and wounding three other people in the vehicle, a spokesman for the YESHA Council of Jewish Settlements said.
The day's violence underlined the dramatic escalation of Intifada conflict over the past few days - an escalation that threatens to sweep away President Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
The shooting attack outside the "Kiriya" - the national military headquarters in Tel Aviv - caused relatively few casualties: eight soldiers and two civilians injured, none of them badly. The gunman, named by Palestinian officials as Mr Ali al-Julani (30) from east Jerusalem, died last night of wounds sustained in the attack, during which he was shot by Israeli security officials and drove his car into a lamppost.
But the psychological impact of the incident was significant - automatic weapons fire right outside the army's nerve centre.
"This is a symbolic issue," said Israel's army spokesman, Brig-Gen Ron Kitri. "The Palestinians are bringing attacks to the middle of Tel Aviv, the largest Israeli city, very close to the fences of the main military installation."
Several officials of Mr Arafat's Palestinian Authority declined to condemn the attack, instead blaming the "assassinations policy" of the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, for intensifying Palestinian anger and violence. But unfazed by firm criticism even from the US in recent days for what Israel prefers to call the "targeting" of alleged terrorists, Israel promptly carried out another such hit yesterday afternoon.
A helicopter fired three missiles at the car of a Hamas activist, Mr Amer Hadiri, killing him. Mr Sharon said the victim had been en route to meet two suicide bombers; military officials claimed that he had bombs for them to detonate inside Israel.
On Saturday, in another attempted hit, Israeli missiles hit the car of, and injured, Mr Muhind Dirya, alleged by Israel to have organised recent fatal attacks on Israeli targets. Mr Dirya is a top aide to the West Bank militant leader, Mr Marwan Barghouti.
In an unprecedented move yesterday, the Israeli Defence Ministry published the names and details of seven more men it alleged were key players in Intifada violence and demanded their arrest by the Palestinian Authority. The move was seen as serving notice that the seven were next on Israel's hit list.
The worsening violence is eroding support among Palestinians for the Palestinian Authority and boosting empathy for the Islamic extremists of Hamas - who have always publicly campaigned for the elimination of Israel.