Is the 'baby bomber' picture genuine?

The image of a Palestinian toddler aged about 18 months, dressed in combat fatigues and wearing a fake suicide bomber's explosives belt, has outraged world opinion already disgusted by the use of young people in "martyrdom attacks". But is the picture, circulated by the Israeli defence forces, genuine?

Probably. It was allegedly found by Israeli soldiers as they searched the home of a wanted militant in Hebron yesterday where 15 gunmen are under siege in the local headquarters of Yasser Arafat's security services. It shows a baby with a live bullet in the middle of a belt around his waist. The picture is a useful Israeli propaganda tool, serving Ariel Sharon's mission to prove that the Palestinian president and all those around him are beyond the pale and must be excluded from negotiations with Israel.

The Evening Standard asked the Israeli army to provide the address where the picture was found so that its authenticity could be established and a name put to the child. The army said this would be a " problem" because the building was "still occupied by Palestinians and this is a matter for Shin Bet [the Israeli secret service]". Both sides have employed propaganda. The Israelis frequently try to get publicity for documents they claim to have captured in operations on the West Bank but the media have treated these with scepticism as the English translations by Israeli agents have proved to be wildly inaccurate.

Responding to the outrage provoked by the photograph, Palestinians say the media has been mute on the killing of six children, all aged under 13, by Israeli forces since Sunday. They died while playing in the street or shopping in a marketplace, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

This week the White House's entire Middle East policy was swayed by an Israeli intelligence report, handed to national security chief Condoleeza Rice, which " proved" Mr Arafat had passed $20,000 to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade to finance terrorist attacks. The document is reported to have hardened George Bush's resolve to call for the end of Mr Arafat's reign over the Palestinians and for elections. The uncritical use of such "intelligence" is dangerous. In Washington several pro-Arab groups have expressed horror that the $20,000 document had so much influence.

There is no doubt, however, that Hamas and Islamic Jihad's supporters bring toddlers to rallies, especially in Gaza, wearing suicide-bomber belts made at school from lavatory rolls.

Many Palestinians have been calling for a end to the ceaseless propaganda and bending of young minds into thinking not of the future but of death. Hamas issued a statement calling on all children to concentrate on their studies until they were 18 when "you will be much more useful to the struggle against the Zionist enemy".