Tanks roll into Arafat's compound

TEL AVIV - The Israeli Army moved into Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah early yesterday, sparking an exchange of gunfire that injured two security guards.

The incursion came as Israel's Cabinet met in special session to consider a response to a suicide bus bombing in Tel Aviv, the second such attack in Israel in two days after a six-week lull. Six people died in the bombing and nearly 50 were injured.

An official inside the compound said Israeli tanks had advanced around a helicopter landing pad outside Arafat's office building.

Arafat's office is in a central section of a large building, protected by piles of sandbags.

An Israeli Army spokesman issued a statement saying: "In response to the terrorist attack, Israeli forces surrounded the compound."

Soldiers with loudspeakers called on wanted Palestinians inside to surrender, naming Tawfik Tirawi, a senior security commander.

Israel TV reported that a bulldozer knocked over some trailers where Palestinian security officers were stationed inside the compound.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a senior Arafat aide, said the Israelis were targeting Arafat himself and called for international intervention to stop the incursion.

"Arafat is fine, but the situation in the compound is very dangerous," Abu Rdeneh said.

In a separate raid, Israeli troops were reported to have killed two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip overnight.

Israeli forces dynamited four metal workshops in the area, according to Palestinian security sources.

Such workshops are frequently targeted by Israeli forces, in the belief that they are used to produce arms.

The raid on Ramallah was the latest of several this year which have involved tanks breaking into the compound.

Arafat has been confined to the building most of the time since last December.

After past suicide terror attacks, hardline Israeli Cabinet ministers have called for the expulsion of Arafat.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has denounced Arafat repeatedly, holding him responsible for Palestinian violence, and has declared him irrelevant to peace initiatives, but has resisted pressure to expel him.

Palestinians claim Israel's harsh military measures are responsible for the violence.

On the one hand, they say, Israel's occupation of most of the West Bank population centres has left Palestinian security unable to operate, and on the other, the Israeli curfews and roadblocks have built Palestinian resentment and frustration, leading to a violent response.

The Palestinian Authority issued a statement denouncing the Tel Aviv bombing, saying it gives Sharon's Government a reason to retaliate.

In Washington, US President George W. Bush condemned the bombings. He told the people of the region: "If you want people to grow up in a peaceful world, all parties must do everything they can to reject and stop violence."

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was appalled by suicide attacks that killed six Israelis and a bomb which wounded five Palestinian schoolchildren in the past three days.

He called for both sides to act with restraint.

This week a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was killed in the West Bank town of Ramallah when he broke an Israeli curfew to buy cigarettes for his father. Witnesses said he was shot by Israeli soldiers. The military had no comment.

And in Abu Dis, a West Bank suburb of Jerusalem, Israeli bulldozers destroyed the family homes of two Palestinians who blew themselves up in Jerusalem on December 1, killing 11 bystanders.

Responding to the Tel Aviv bombing, the Palestinian Authority, headed by Arafat, issued a statement condemning attacks against all civilians, Israeli and Palestinian, and charging that such a strike in Israel "gives Sharon's Government and his occupation Army the pretext to continue killing".

But Palestinian Cabinet Minister Ghassan Khatib said Sharon had provoked the attacks because Israeli forces had taken control of main West Bank population centres, putting towns and cities under curfew.

"Civilians are paying the price for the policy of Sharon," he said. "The Israeli Government has to stop its strategy of using force to achieve its objectives."

The siege coincided with two Israeli Army incursions into the Gaza Strip, with one group advancing to the edge of Gaza City and another penetrating 2km, near to the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanun. Tanks were reported to have fired on buildings. Israel took over most of the Palestinian towns in the West Bank in mid-June after back-to-back suicide bombings in Jerusalem killed 26 people.

In all, 1868 people have died on the Palestinian side and 617 on the Israeli side since violence erupted in September 2000, burying peace talks in which Israel had offered the Palestinians statehood in more than 90 per cent of the West Bank and Gaza, but came short of meeting Palestinian demands.

- AGENCIES

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