While Israel and Syria talked peace in Washington yesterday, one of the conflicts their negotiations are designed to solve intensified.
A dozen 10-year-old schoolchildren were injured in south Lebanon by artillery fire launched by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army during clashes involving Hizbullah and other guerrilla groups on one hand, and the SLA and Israeli army on the other.
Three of the boys were in serious condition in hospital last night; the Israeli army, which acknowledged the fire and apologetically insisted it had been misdirected, was on alert for retaliation.
In the first indication of the potential fruits of the new direct Israeli-Syrian contacts, however, the Israeli army did not order residents of northern Israel into their bomb-shelters, as would normally have been the procedure in the wake of such an incident.
Israeli military sources explained that they believed Syria, which exerts considerable influence over Hizbullah, would ensure that the guerrillas did not fire Katyusha rockets across the border into Israel - since this would risk an escalation of fighting that would overshadow the peace effort.
The expectation that peace with Syria would also involve peace on the Israeli-Lebanon border is a key factor in the renewed peace process. In this week's talks, indeed, Israel is understood to have urged Syria to rein in Hizbullah - as an act of good faith, and a confidence-building measure to persuade a sceptical Israeli public that the price demanded by Syria for peace, a full return of the Golan Heights, is worth paying.
While reports from Washington indicate genuine progress behind closed doors at the talks, the failure of Syria's Foreign Minister, Mr Faruq al-Shara, to shake hands with the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, at Wednesday's formal opening ceremony was seen by supporters of a deal in Israel as disappointing, and by opponents as proof of Syria's continuing hostility.
The thrust of Mr al-Shara's body-language at the ceremony, more than one commentator noted, suggested a man trying to make peace with President Clinton, rather than Mr Barak. "If all the Syrians are ready for is peace with America", wrote analyst Nahum Barnea, "let them demand Louisiana, not the Golan."
AFP reports
The Lebanese President, Mr Emile Lahoud, yesterday condemned as a "crime" the Israeli shelling of the school in southern Lebanon. He described it as a threat to peace efforts.
A statement from the presidential palace laid the responsibility on "Israel and its agents".
"The recent Israeli escalation in southern Lebanon is a direct threat to peace efforts in the region," he said, calling for an urgent meeting of the committee that monitors the April 1996 truce between the two countries.