Massive Israeli tank attack spikes Bush's diplomacy

AMERICAN efforts to mediate in the accelerating Middle East conflict were in doubt last night after Israel launched its biggest ground offensive for 20 years on the eve of the arrival of President Bush’s special envoy.
Washington is urgently seeking a formula to take the heat out of the fighting as it works to put together a coalition with Arab countries for its planned campaign against President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. But yesterday Israel moved troops, tanks and armoured bulldozers into the West Bank and Gaza Strip, seizing control of most of Ramallah, where Yassir Arafat has his headquarters.

The operation took the death toll in the 18-month-old intifada past 1,500, and the total this month to more than 220. It also brought the harshest criticism yet from Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, who urged Israel to end its “illegal occupation” of Palestinian territories captured in the 1967 war. He warned Ariel Sharon’s Government to stem attacks on Palestinian civilians, saying they gravely eroded Israel’s international standing and fueled the fires of hatred.