Israel attacks Arafat compound

By PHIL REEVES

JERUSALEM - As Israel's Ariel Sharon declared a new and more severe war on the Palestinians, his F-16 jets and combat helicopters were already launching their first wave of punishing retaliatory attacks last night (early this morning NZT) inside the occupied territories.

Enraged by three Hamas suicide-bombing attacks that claimed 28 lives and plunged the Middle East into the worst crisis for year, the Israeli prime minister declared a "war on terror".

In this, he was advancing his long campaign to align Israel's territorial conflict with the Palestinians with the American campaign on Osama bin Laden and his supporters after the World Trade Center atrocities.

Fresh back from a trip to the United States, where he received public backing from President George Bush to take what every military measures he sees fit, he made a televised address to the nation stating that Israel would respond with "all means at its disposal".

"Just as the United States acts in its battle against world terror, under the brave leadership of President Bush, just as it acts with all its strength, so shall we do," he said.

He spoke before attending a cabinet meeting to decide how to retaliate to the three attacks - two suicide bombers who detonated themselves simultaneously in Jerusalem late on Saturday, followed up by a car bomb, and a suicide bombing on a bus in Haifa less than 12 hours later. Earlier he had consulted with his security chiefs and most senior ministers.

He faces pressure from his colleagues on the right-wing to topple Yasser Arafat - whom he repeatedly blames for the attacks - but he also stressed the importance of maintaining his government of national unity. Key Labour components of his coalition - notably the Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer oppose destroying Mr Arafat and his Palestinian Authority.

But even before the cabinet met, the Israeli armed forces were in action. Combat helicopters blasted missiles into aircraft hangars, destroying three of Yasser Arafat's helicopters close to his beachside headquarters in the Gaza Strip, and his landing pad.

Though clearly meant as a message to the globe-trotting Palestinian leader that his rule could be toppled if he does not bow to Israel's demands, the attacks also took a human toll. Palestinian officials said that 17 people were injured.

"There will be more serious things to come," said an Israeli official after the strikes, which sent terrified people fleeing in panic through the streets of Gaza as the skies filled with large columns of black smoke.

Shortly afterwards, Israeli F-16 war planes fired missiles at a police base and offices of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank town of Jenin - targeting the very officials whom Israel and the United States are now pressing to arrest the militants who have been mounting attacks against civilians inside Israel.

The fact that such attacks have so far only hardened militant anti-Israeli trends within the Palestinian security apparatus - and have clearly failed to stop attacks on Israel - has not deterred Israel from continuing with its policy.

There was a furious reaction from Palestinian officials, Saeb Erekat, a veteran peace negotiator, accused Israel of "making it impossible for those of us who want to make peace".

He called on the United States - whose ineffective diplomacy is the source of increasing frustration in the region - to intervene. The assaults went ahead despite mass arrests of militants by the Palestinians security forces, who have strongly condemned the suicide bombings and have declared a state of emergency, allowing them to arrest political activists without warrants.

Officials said that they had taken 110 people into custody in the West Bank and Gaza - despite hostility from the Palestinian public, many of whom regard the suicide bombings as a justified response to a year-long Israeli blockade, scores of assassinations, and the killing of 800 people, many of them unarmed non-combatants shot dead by the Israeli army.

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