Farce and terror in the 'closed area' of Ramallah: Ghost town has a climate of fear, as peace protesters put themselves in the firing line and Bush policy shows a shift

Journalists were ordered out of Ramallah late on Sunday night. It's an old trick. Whenever the Israeli army wants to stop us seeing what they're up to, out comes that most preposterous exercise in military law-on-the-hoof: the "Closed Military Area''.

So yesterday was a good day to do the opposite, to go look at what Israel's army was up to. And I can well see why it didn't want reporters around.

A slog down a gravel-covered hillside not far from an Israeli checkpoint, a clamber over rocks and mud and a hitched ride to the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Amari on the edge of Ramallah told its own story; a tale of terrified civilians and roaring tanks and kids throwing stones at Israeli Jeeps, just as they did before Oslo and all the other false hopes which the Americans and the Israelis and Mr Y Arafat brought to the region.

Rather than waging a "war on terror'' the Israeli soldiers looked as if they had entered the wilderness of occupation, just as they did in Lebanon back in 1982, when "Closed Military Areas'' were about as common – and worthless – as confetti. The Palestinians hid in their homes, shutters down, eyes peering from behind blinds, occasionally sneaking on to a balcony to wave when they saw a Westerner in the street. A few children could be seen running between houses. At what age, I wonder, does war transmute itself from a game into a tragedy?