Suicide bombing kills 16 as Israel besieges Arafat

9.00am

HAIFA, Israel - A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in the Israeli port city of Haifa on Sunday, killing at least 16 people, as Israeli troops tightened a siege on Yasser Arafat's headquarters.

The blast, the fourth suicide attack since the Jewish Passover holiday began last Wednesday, tore the roof off a restaurant frequented by Jews and Arabs and raised fears that 18 months of conflict may spiral into even bloodier confrontation.

Two hours later, a suicide bomber wounded four people at a Jewish settlement in the West Bank as Israel's government met to discuss further action to halt Palestinian attacks after ringing Arafat's compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday.

Witnesses said at least two people were killed and six of Arafat's guards wounded in the latest fighting in Ramallah, which follows 18 months of violence and revenge since Palestinians rose up against Israeli occupation.

Violence raged on despite an Easter Sunday appeal for peace by Pope John Paul and a call by the United Nations, including the United States, for Israel to withdraw troops from Ramallah and other West Bank cities. Israel ignored the UN appeal.

"It seems that war has been declared on peace," the Pope said in a message to the world, calling for an end to the "dramatic spiral of abuse of power and killings that bloody the Holy Land".

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was due to address the nation on television at 1730 GMT (5.30am NZT) after the government meeting. Details of his speech and the decisions taken were not known.

The Haifa explosion spewed debris across a nearby parking lot, sending metal bars crashing on to cars parked below. The wounded were stretchered through the wreckage to ambulances.

"I was outside when I heard a huge explosion. I went into the restaurant and saw some of the people burning up, some already dead. I began taking out the wounded, with a few of them I had to put out the flames first," an Israeli, identified only as Shimon, said.

The Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas said a 22-year-old resident of a refugee camp in the northern West Bank town of Jenin carried out the attack on its behalf to avenge the Israeli attacks on Ramallah and elsewhere.

Police said 16 people were killed and 30 wounded. Government spokesman David Baker said Israel would leave no stone unturned to "stop this campaign of terror against us".

The United States swiftly condemned the attack and urged Arafat to stop such attacks.

"Chairman Arafat knows what he needs to do. President Bush was very clear about that yesterday and in previous days," a top Bush administration official said.

President George W Bush urged Arafat on Saturday to use his own forces to prevent such attacks. He did not call for an Israeli withdrawal from Ramallah, saying he respected Israel's right to defend itself.

The Israeli troops encircling Arafat's headquarters earlier on Sunday traded fire with his guards.

Arafat, his pistol at his side in a building metres away from the shooting, has said he would rather die than surrender to a siege that Sharon says is intended to isolate the Palestinian leader and end suicide attacks.

Palestinian officials said Israel was trying to storm the building where Arafat was holed up. Israel denied trying to enter the building.

More than 40 international peace activists later marched past the Israeli tanks with their hands up and went into Arafat's headquarters, where he received them.

They said he looked calm, and electricity and water supplies had resumed. Arafat said he had sought international help in a telephone call with US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"I told Colin Powell that we need the urgent sending of international forces to stop this aggression and military escalation against our people, against our cities, against our towns, against our refugee camps," Arafat said in English.

Israeli soldiers conducted house-to-house searches, detaining at least 25 young men who were taken away with their hands tied behind their backs. Seven policemen were seized, a Reuters correspondent on the scene said.

Smashed cars were strewn across the city, pavements were chewed up and at least 50 tanks had taken up positions in the centre of Ramallah, 15km north of Jerusalem. Troops fired at water tanks and water gushed out.

The army cut off water and electricity to Arafat's compound but said on Saturday it had let Palestinian ambulances deliver food, bottled water and candles.

Israel launched its onslaught against Arafat early on Friday after a suicide bombing that killed 22 Israelis in a luxury hotel in the Mediterranean coastal resort of Netanya at the start of the Passover holiday last week.

That suicide bombing was the bloodiest since the start of a conflict that had, before Sunday's suicide attack, killed at least 1127 Palestinians and 384 Israelis since September 2000. The ethnicity of the Haifa victims was not immediately clear.

Suicide bombings wounded 32 people in a Tel Aviv restaurant on Saturday night and killed two people at a supermarket in Jerusalem on Friday. Another suspected suicide bomber wounded four people at the Efrat settlement in the West Bank on Sunday.

- REUTERS

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