It will strengthen mutual allegations that the truce is being routinely broken, and bring more political pressure on both sides to step up the conflict.Israel’s government publicity machine has successfully promoted the view that the violence is committed only by the Palestinians. In reality, violations of the truce have come from both sides.On Sunday two Palestinian youths were shot by the Israeli military, which says its soldiers are under orders to shoot only when their lives are threatened. The youths had reportedly been throwing stones.There were three shootings of Israeli motorists yesterday A 35-year-old Jewish settler was shot dead on the West Bank A faction of Fatah claimed responsibility. A second person was shot dead last night in a convoy of cars approaching the Jewish settlement of Einav in the northern West Bank.The violence was reflected in hostile verbal exchanges. Israel’s Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon has said a “cooling-off” period will not begin until the Palestinian attacks have been brought to a complete halt.Speaking during a trip to Jordan, Yasser Arafat accused Israel of breaking international commitments and warned that the ceasefire deal would not last unless Israel ended its blockade of the occupied territories and froze settlement building. Israel is sticking to what it calls a policy of “restraint”, maintaining much of its punitive siege, but using less excessive military measures than earlier in the conflict. Yesterday, Mr Sharon reiterated this intention: “I am not willing to accept calls …

saying I have to take this nation to war.” Two bombs were discovered and safely detonated inside Israel in the Mediterranean city of Haifa yesterday. One bomb was attached to a motorcycle and was set to be detonated by an attached cellular telephone, a police spokesman said. The events have placed Ariel Sharon under further pressure from the far-right to launch a major military strike against the Palestinians, a move which he publicly resisted “There are many things we must do … but to take the people now to war, in my view, is a mistake of the first order from every perspective,” the Israeli Prime Minister told members of his Likud party.. Palestinian survivors of a massacre in Lebanon nearly 20 years ago asked a Belgian court yesterday to indict the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, for crimes against humanity over his role in the carnage. Palestinian survivors of a massacre in Lebanon nearly 20 years ago asked a Belgian court yesterday to indict the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, for crimes against humanity over his role in the carnage.Taking advantage of Belgium’s unusually broad laws on war crimes, 28 of those who survived the killings at the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps outside Beirut filed a legal complaint with an investigating judge in Brussels.

He will probably take one month to decide whether Mr Sharon and others should face charges for involvement in the murders.In 1982 up to 2,000 unarmed Palestinians in the camps were slaughtered by a Lebanese Christian militia allied to the Israelis. An Israeli inquiry found Mr Sharon, who was then Defence Minister, “indirectly responsible” and he resigned.Even if the case goes ahead, Mr Sharon would almost certainly not be arrested if he went to Belgium. But the attempt to purse a war crimes case has already caused a diplomatic incident, and the Israeli Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, has told the Belgian government that none of his fellow ministers will risk visiting Brussels if the action proceeds.That creates a headache for Belgium, which takes over the European Union’s presidency at the end of the month and will be expected to play a leading role in Europe’s efforts to help broker peace in the Middle East.One of the survivors, Souad Srour Al-Marai, gave harrowing details of the massacre, which took the lives of most of her family. She said: “My little sister, aged 18 months, raised her hand and asked her mother to pick her up, she was frightened.

Then they started shooting at us.”My little sister received a bullet in the head, my father was hit in his chest but was still alive. My brothers and sisters, Chadi [3], Farid [8], Bassam [11], Hajar [7], Chadia [18 months] [and] also our neighbour were all killed by the first bullets.”The woman then said she was raped in front of her dying father and left for dead.The basis for the case lies in a law dating from 1993 that gives Belgian courts jurisdiction over violations of the Geneva war crimes convention no matter where they happened, even if they involve no Belgian nationals. Earlier this month the legislation was used to convict two nuns who played a role in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, fuelling a debate over the whole process of war crimes prosecutions.The Belgian government, concerned at the prospect of dozens of new cases from around the world, and fearful of the political implications, now wants to amend the law.Vincent Van Quickenborne, a Belgian senator who is sponsoring the case, said that “for Belgium as a state these facts cannot be acceptable. We as a state should indict people and try them to find out whether they have committed these acts.”Michael Verhaeghe, the lawyer who is representing the survivors, said there was “sufficient evidence” to convict those responsible, adding that “the facts in this case undeniably reveal crimes against humanity”.Yesterday’s legal action is the second against Mr Sharon to be lodged in Belgium, but it is thought to stand a greater chance of leading to a trial.The 1982 massacre unfolded over three days when Israel allowed its Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia allies into the refugee camps. Mr Sharon had earlier claimed that there were 2,000 “terrorists” in the camps; Israel later claimed the Phalange were sent into Sabra and Chatila to “mop up” the armed guerrillas supposedly still there after the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s withdrawal from Beirut the previous month.The subsequent Israeli Kahan commission report stated that Israeli troops surrounding the camps knew what was happening.

Throughout the killings many of the victims were stabbed and a large number of women were murdered after being gang-raped. Mr Sharon was in overall command of the Israeli forces.More than 400 of the dead were buried in a mass grave just inside the entrance to the camps. Hundreds of others were buried secretly during the massacre, many of them beneath Beirut golf course.* Yesterday, we stated that an Israeli inquiry into the 1982 massacre of Palestinan civilians in Lebanon held Ariel Sharon responsible. We have been asked to point out that the inquiry found Mr Sharon to be “indirectly” responsible.. Police shot dead 11 protesters and issued orders to fire on anyone violating a curfew after a mob set fire to the legislature building and torched the homes and offices of political leaders in the eastern Indian state of Manipur, witnesses and authorities said yesterday.