Mid-East blasts cloud peace hopes

Attacks continue alongside peace efforts

At least five Palestinians have been killed in separate explosions in Gaza and the West Bank, dampening cautious hopes that an end to current clashes might be in sight.

Monday's blasts

Ramallah bomb kills two, wounds several

Car bomb at Gaza Jewish settlement kills one, injures another

Blast in Gaza City kills two, wounds three at home of Hamas activist

The most recent blast, in the West Bank town of Ramallah, killed at least two people. It took place near the headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who was not hurt.

Two earlier explosions in the Gaza Strip killed three Palestinians, including a member of the militant group, Hamas.

The latest deaths followed optimism about a ceasefire between the Palestinians and Israelis after a weekend of intensive diplomatic activity.

Gaza deaths

Monday's violence began when an explosion ripped through the Rafah Yam Jewish settlement in Gaza.

The Israeli army believes the bomb, which had been hidden in a car, was planted by Palestinians targeting a Jewish man and his daughter.

But instead it killed one Palestinian working in a nearby greenhouse, and wounded another.

The third in Ramallah was a huge explosion which levelled a two-story apartment building across from Mr Arafat's headquarters.

At least two people were killed, one an eight-year-old boy. A woman and a five-year-old girl were injured. Several people are reported to have been trapped under the rubble.

There was no immediate word about the cause of the blast. Witnesses said it came from inside the building.

Mr Arafat was in his headquarters building at the time of the explosion.

Ceasefire hopes

The violence came as the Israeli Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, travelled to New York for further talks on a peace plan drawn up by Egypt and Jordan.

Their joint initiative is aimed at ending seven months of violence in the region.

Egyptian-Jordanian proposal

Israeli troops pull back to Sept 2000 positions

Two sides resume security co-operation

Israelis lift blockade on Palestinian areas

Israelis end settlement building

Mr Peres is scheduled to meet President George W Bush on Thursday.

At the weekend talks, Israel agreed to ease security measures imposed on Palestinians "immediately and unconditionally".

The Egypt-Jordan proposals envisage a series of confidence-building measures under which Israel would lift its siege of Palestinian-controlled areas and pull back its troops, in return for the Palestinians resuming security co-operation.

But Israel has reservations about certain aspects of the plan, particularly a blanket freeze on the building of Jewish settlements.

Diplomacy

Mr Peres travelled to Egypt and Jordan to explain Israel's reservations about the peace plan, which the Palestinians insist must be accepted in its entirety to ensure an end to the violence.

After meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Mr Peres told Israeli television that he saw "the beginning of the possibility of getting out of the present deadlock".

Mr Peres was cautiously optimistic

But as his foreign minister was on his way to the US, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said any talks would have to start after a period of one-to-three months of ceasefire.

"We will consider the situation only according to the results on the ground and not according to statements and promises," Mr Sharon told the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana.

"No country in the world would countenance terrorism on a daily basis and be prepared to pay with its residents' blood," he said in a statement.

On Sunday, the Palestinian Authority announced that it had acted to prevent further mortar attacks against Jewish settlements in Gaza, dissolving a committee of the Fatah political movement thought to be responsible.

But tens of masked and armed Palestinian militants protested on Monday in Rafah in the Gaza strip against the order.

Latest reports say two mortar shells have been fired at the Gadit settlement in the southern Gaza Strip.