13.06.2001 - CIA chief George Tenet brought together senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials to begin implementing a U.S.-brokered truce the two sides have accepted. Israel said it considered the truce to have taken effect with the end of the three-way meeting, at 3 p.m., and Israeli media said the two sides would begin carrying out some of the cease-fire provisions in the next 48 hours. However, Palestinian officials described the meeting as a failure, saying the Israelis did not commit to specific steps, such as easing a security closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

22.06.2001 - Two Israeli soldiers were killed in an explosion in the Gaza Strip on Friday, lured toward a booby-trapped jeep by Palestinians calling for help, the army said. Elsewhere in Gaza, two Palestinian teen-agers were critically wounded by Israeli fire. The attacks came as a senior U.S. envoy, William Burns, met with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to try to cement a fragile cease-fire.

26.06.2001 - Inviting himself to the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was hoping for talk of unity at the expense of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Instead, Sharon wound up his Washington visit Wednesday after a cold shower of public disagreement with President Bush. Sharon and Bush clashed in public over how much reduction in Mideast violence would be enough to trigger further political moves. And in a closed meeting they disagreed over the explosive issue of freezing construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "There must be a total cessation of violence" before any negotiations, Sharon said at every opportunity, even correcting a reporter who asked about "cessation." Bush made it clear from the outset that his administration does not share the all-or-nothing Israeli view.