Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon begins plotting out strategies to stamp out the renewed Palestinian revolt and revive peacemaking today in his first cabinet meeting since taking office.
Mr Sharon only took power last week but has already begun blaming Palestinian President Yasser Arafat for doing nothing to stop fighting in which at least 343 Palestinians, 65 Israelis, and 13 Israeli Arabs were killed.
Palestinians accused Mr Sharon yesterday of turning their cities into prisons after Israeli troops sealed off parts of the West Bank with trenches and tanks in what the army said were measures to prevent Palestinian militants from attacking Israel.
In fresh violence overnight gun battles between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians erupted in the southern Gaza Strip and near the West Bank city of Nablus.
The Israeli army also reported hand-grenades were thrown at troops in Gaza.
Mr Sharon met his Defence Minister Mr Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and top security advisers late yesterday to plan Israel's policies to tackle the Palestinian uprising that re-erupted last September after peace talks became deadlocked, Israel Radio reported.
It said Israel's intelligence agencies expect violence to erupt ahead of an Arab summit in Jordan later this month and Mr Sharon's visit to Washington for a meeting with US President Bush on March 20th.
Palestinians said Israel's tightening of its stranglehold on the West Bank and Gaza Strip caused immense economic hardship and heightened resentment by making Palestinians feel they were living under siege.
Mr Arafat's aide Mr Nabil Abu Rdainah accused Israel of "suffocating" Palestinian areas with the new measures which he called a "dangerous escalation" against the Palestinian people.