Only hours after Israelis and Palestinians exchanged mortar fire early yesterday morning in the Gaza Strip they were trading views in the most senior-level contacts between the two sides since Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon took office last month.
After the Palestinians fired four mortar shells at the isolated Gaza settlement of Netzarim early yesterday, the Israeli army retaliated with mortars, targeting a position of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's Force 17 guard unit, from where the army said the shells had been fired. There were no injuries.
A week of escalating violence, marked by Palestinian suicide bombs and Israeli aerial attacks on Gaza and the West Bank, produced a flurry of diplomatic activity yesterday, with Israeli Foreign Minister Mr Shimon Peres meeting Palestinian ministers Mr Saeb Erekat and Mr Nabil Sha'ath in Athens.
Mr Peres defined the meeting as an "exchange of views, but not negotiations. I heard at length their descriptions of the distress in the territories", he added, "they heard at length about the enormous damage caused by violence".
Mr Erekat put a different spin on the meeting, saying the talks had focused on political issues as well, including the resumption of negotiations, implementation of past agreements and the expansion of Jewish settlements. The Palestinians have insisted a cessation of hostilities has to be accompanied by a resumption of peace talks at the point they left off under former prime minister Mr Ehud Barak, a condition rejected by Mr Sharon.
In the wake of the Athens meeting it emerged that senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials were scheduled to meet late last night to discuss renewing security co-operation which crumbled shortly after the outbreak of the Intifada uprising last September.
Despite Mr Sharon's election pledge not to negotiate with the Palestinians until violence ceased, it emerged yesterday that his son, Mr Omri Sharon, who serves as an unofficial aide to his father, had met Mr Arafat on Sunday in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The Prime Minister's Office, which confirmed the meeting, said the only topic on the agenda was the cessation of violence and that no diplomatic discussions had taken place.