OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON, 4 April — Egypt scaled back contacts with the Israeli government yesterday as Israeli tanks blasted their way into three more West Bank towns.

“Government-to-government contacts are stopped. Diplomatic channels remain open,” a senior Egyptian official said in Cairo. “The Cabinet issued a decree that all contacts between the two governments would stop, short of diplomatic channels which will serve the Palestinian question and the issue of peace in the region,” he said.

Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel and both have maintained diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. Egypt withdrew its ambassador from Tel Aviv in November 2000 in protest at Israel’s handling of the Palestinian uprising. Israel has kept its ambassador in Cairo.

Loud explosions and gunbattles shook Jenin as dozens of tanks advanced from three sides and helicopter gunships fired on a refugee camp outside the northern West Bank town.

Three Palestinian fighters, a civilian man and woman and a 13-year-old boy were killed in the Jenin area, according to Palestinian security sources. Four Israeli soldiers were wounded.

The Gulf Cooperation Council called on the United States to use its leverage with Israel to persuade it to comply with a UN resolution ordering it to withdraw from the West Bank cities.

“The international community, primarily the United States in its capacity as sponsor of the (Middle East) peace process, is called upon to shoulder its responsibilities to ensure implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1402,” said a statement by GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Hamad Al-Atiyah.

The GCC denounced “the brutal Israeli attacks, the massacre of the Palestinian people and the siege imposed on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat”.

“These savage Israeli attacks aim at thwarting any attempt to reach a just, lasting and comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict in keeping with relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” the statement said.

European Union foreign ministers were meeting in Brussels in an urgent search for a solution to the violence.

“It is clear that previous mediation has failed and we need new mediation,” European Commission President Romano Prodi emphasized at a midday press conference.

“We need the US, the EU, the UN, moderate Arab states, the Israelis, the Palestinians and Russia around the same table,” he said.

But a senior Israeli official immediately rebuffed the call, saying: “There is no point holding such a conference before we reach a real cease-fire on the ground that the Palestinians will respect.”

At the United Nations, a Palestinian envoy urged the Security Council to press for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank towns, saying Israel appeared “determined to take us all to the precipice in the Middle East.”

As the council met for the fourth time in six days on the crisis in the region, Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian UN representative, sought to keep the heat on the 15-nation body to come down hard on Israel’s military crackdown.

The Palestinians, backed by Arab and nonaligned nations, want the council to adopt a resolution calling for the immediate implementation of the two Middle East resolutions adopted in the past few weeks by the UN.

In response to Cairo’s move, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said: “At such a sensitive and problematic time, it would be better to strengthen ties, not reduce them.”

The US State Department had no direct comment on the Egyptian decision, but a spokeswoman said Washington believed that close ties between the two countries were vital for the prospects of Middle East peace. “As a general principle, at this sensitive time, we believe that dialogue is important and we encourage Egypt and Israel to maintain the closest possible contacts,” the spokeswoman, Susan Povenmire, said.

The United States also signaled a policy shift by suggesting it was open to addressing political aspects of a Middle East peace deal before a truce exists on the ground — a move that appeared designed to appeal to the Palestinians. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting in Cairo on Saturday to discuss the Israeli offensive. He said the foreign ministers had asked for the gathering to be delayed to allow them to travel to Cairo from Kuala Lumpur, where they have been attending a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

For a second day, Lebanese Hezbollah fighters fired missiles at army posts on Israel’s northern border, provoking a response by Israeli artillery and warplanes firing rockets.

Syria began shifting the 20,000 troops it has in Lebanon, in an apparent bid to make them less of a target for any Israeli retaliation for attacks by Hezbollah.

The move, which diplomats said was a sign Damascus is keen to avoid direct confrontation with Israel, came a day after Israel warned that the attacks on Israelis near its border with Lebanon could have “alarming consequences.”

In the West Bank, tanks rolled into Nablus, Salfit and Jenin, where they encountered resistance, and Israeli forces kept Palestinian President Yasser Arafat under siege in his headquarters in the city of Ramallah.

Sporadic battles erupted in Bethlehem, where a Palestinian policeman and a member of an armed wing of Arafat’s Fatah movement bled to death after being wounded in a clash with Israeli troops on Tuesday, Palestinian security sources said.

Pope John Paul sharply criticized Israel for “humiliating” the Palestinians. In a strongly worded statement, the Vatican said it had called in the Israeli and US ambassadors to the Holy See on Tuesday to discuss the crisis.

While condemning acts of terrorism, the statement included a list of criticisms of the Jewish state. It said the Pope “rejects unjust conditions and humiliations imposed on the Palestinian people as well as the reprisals and revenge attacks which do nothing but feed the sense of frustration and hatred.”

Israeli soldiers prevented Church leaders from delivering a peace message to Bethlehem. About 50 church leaders and clergymen drove with olive branches from Jerusalem to a military checkpoint on the northern outskirts of the West Bank town. Israeli soldiers prevented them entering, saying the town was a closed military zone.

Israel has reoccupied a string of West Bank towns and villages since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sent tanks to Ramallah on Friday. Israel’s campaign has deepened fears of all-out war and stoked anger across the Arab world. Palestinians say the aim is to topple Arafat and reoccupy Palestinian-ruled areas.