Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's son Omri met with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat in Ramallah to warn him that the violence must stop, media reports said on Friday.
The ceasefire declared a month ago was in shambles and the situation appeared to be deteriorating on Friday after a Jewish settler was killed and another one was wounded by Palestinian gunfire, provoking an Israeli retaliatory operation in which one Palestinian was killed and seventeen were wounded.
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In Jerusalem, the prime minister's office declined to comment on conflicting reports that said Omri - who has met previously with the Palestinian leader - had already met with Arafat last night and others that said he would meet with Arafat on Friday evening.
Omri reportedly delivered a message to Arafat that all the violence, terror and incitement must stop, the reports said.
Although Sharon's son is not a politician or an experienced negotiator, Sharon reportedly received permission from Israel's attorney general for the meeting to go ahead, as long as the meeting was intended to save lives.
A report in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz quoted a diplomatic source in Jerusalem as saying that the prime minister's decision to send his son to meet with Arafat indicates that he does not want to see the situation deteriorate further.
Sharon, who wrapped a 24-hour trip to Italy on Friday, said Israel will follow a policy of immediately responding to Palestinian attacks, but he rejected the idea that Israel was planning any large-scale operations against the Palestinians.
The prime minister met with Italian leaders to explain to them Israel's position and ask them to pressure Arafat into halting terrorism and violence.
After a meeting with his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday, Sharon said it was still Israel's goal to arrive at the point where negotiations could begin again but the Palestinians had to understand they would pay a price for attacks on Israelis.
Israel and the PA agreed to a U.S.-sponsored plan toward resuming negotiations, the first step of which was to be a complete halt to violence. Both sides agreed to a ceasefire but the terrorism and clashes have continued since the declaration a month ago.
Heaviest Fighting Yet In Hebron
The heaviest fighting in the divided city of Hebron since the beginning of the 10-month-old uprising erupted overnight following the shooting of two Israeli settlers.
The Palestinian "Popular Army Front" said in a statement that the shooting was in retaliation for Israeli attacks. "We will chase those mob settlers on all the roads and we will target YESHA Council [the leadership in Judea, Samaria and Gaza] for arming the settlers," the statement said.
Yehezkiel Mualem, a 49-year-old father of four, died early Friday morning of wounds he sustained in a late night shooting attack near Hebron. A second was moderately wounded in the same attack.
Earlier another Israeli civilian was shot in the head and critically wounded in the same area, prompting an Israeli retaliatory attack and the raising of two Palestinian outposts with tank fire.
One Palestinian was reported killed and seventeen others wounded in the Israeli operation, including three members of Arafat's Force 17.
"In reaction to the grave Palestinian attacks the army attacked...two Palestinian targets in the area of the city of Hebron...from where they opened fire yesterday," an army statement said on Friday.
"The army will not permit the continuation of the wounding of Israeli citizens and soldiers and will work with the appropriate means against the terrorists and those who sent them," it added.
Some 500 Israelis live in four heavily guarded enclaves in Hebron and another 5000 live in nearby Kiryat Arba. They are surrounded by about 120,000 Palestinians who live in Hebron itself and in surrounding villages.
Hebron was divided into Israeli and PA sections in the 1997 Hebron accord. Some 80 percent of the city was handed over to complete PA-control, while 20 percent remained under Israeli security control.
In a separate incident on Friday, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian in the Gaza Strip who threw a grenade at army sappers who were attempting to diffuse a massive bomb that had been planted there, an army spokeswoman said.
Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz expressed his doubts that a ceasefire would take hold any time in the near future. Speaking in the disputed territories, he estimated that the Israeli-Palestinian struggle would be "lengthy and difficult."
Israel's Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer met with Washington's newest envoy to the region, deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs, David Satterfield and told him that the security situation was "very grave."
He called on Europe and the U.S. to pressure Arafat into stopping the violence. Satterfield said he would inform the PA leadership of the need to arrest terrorists on Israel's wanted list.
Washington announced it was sending Satterfield earlier this week to maintain contacts between Israel and the PA.