Tel Aviv blast as Israel besieges Arafat

TEL AVIV - A huge explosion, apparently caused by a suicide bomber, has ripped through a Tel Aviv restaurant as Israel keeps Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat under siege in his shattered West Bank headquarters.

Medical workers said more than 20 people had been wounded and police said the bomber had died in the blast at the restaurant in a popular nightlife district of the coastal city.

"There was a huge explosion. I ran outside and took one look. There were people scattered all over the road in bad shape. I couldn't look any longer. I turned and I ran as a fast as I could," a vendor at a nearby snackstand, who gave his name only as Moshe, said on Saturday.

The blast came a day after Israel sent tanks and troops to besiege Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah in what it said was a response to a suicide bombing on Wednesday that killed 22 Israelis.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Israeli troops surrounding Arafat's compound had warned that they planned to storm his office.

Several hours later, Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, dismissed the report.

"As for future plans, the whole story of an ultimatum is something Palestinian sources have invented. As we have said, we are not after Arafat as such," he told Reuters.

Israel wanted to "isolate Arafat and take all necessary measures to uproot terrorist organisations that have found refuge there (in his headquarters)," Gissin added.

In a statement, the army said troops had allowed Palestinian ambulances to bring food, bottled water and candles into Arafat's office. It said Palestinian technicians had also been permitted to work on restoring power supplies to the compound.

The Tel Aviv blast came at the end of the Jewish Sabbath, when Israelis often go out to restaurants and entertainment spots. About two dozen ambulances rushed to the area and there were chaotic scenes in the street outside the restaurant.

A weeping middle-aged woman, desperately trying to find her daughter, was prevented from breaking through the police cordon.

"My baby, my baby," she cried. "My daughter was here tonight and now I can't reach her on the cell phone."

US President George W. Bush told reporters in Texas on Saturday he could understand Israel's need to defend itself but urged the Israeli government to find a path to peace and defuse the crisis in the Middle East.

"There's got to be a peaceful solution and I have been assured by the Israeli government that Chairman (Yasser) Arafat... won't be harmed," he said.

Bush said Arafat had to speak out. "He has got to make it absolutely clear that the Palestinian Authority does not support terrorists ... I think that Chairman Arafat can do a lot more."

A defiant Arafat, in a candlelit interview at his tank-encircled West Bank headquarters, asked the world earlier to end what he called Israel's assault on his people.

"I appeal to the international community to stop this aggression against our people, this military escalation, this killing," the Palestinian leader told Reuters television.

Arafat was speaking hours after the UN Security Council, with the rare support of the United States, called for Israel to withdraw from Ramallah and other Palestinian-ruled cities.

Envoys from the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union met urgently in Jerusalem in another reflection of world anxiety at the bloody showdown between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his old Palestinian foe.

The Israeli army on Saturday displayed a large cache of weapons it said it had found at the Ramallah compound, "under the eyes of the chairman of the Palestinian Authority". It said the weapons, which included mortar bombs, sniper rifles and grenades, were forbidden in Palestinian-controlled areas.

Israel's siege of Arafat's compound severely dented hopes raised by an Arab summit's endorsement this week of a Middle East peace plan and caused fury across the Arab world.

Jordan warned Israel not to harm Arafat, saying its assault on his base threatened to end hopes of Arab-Israeli peace. In Baghdad, some 10,000 Iraqis marched to show support for Arafat.

The bodies of five Palestinian policemen were found in a Ramallah building vacated by Israeli troops hours earlier.

Palestinians accused Israel of killing them in cold blood. Israel said they had been shot in a close-range battle in which two Israeli soldiers had been wounded.

One of Arafat's bodyguards and an intelligence officer were killed in firefights with Israeli troops in the presidential compound on Saturday, Palestinian security sources said. Another Arafat bodyguard died of wounds he sustained on Friday.

Fresh violence erupted when two Palestinians on their way to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel died during a firefight with Israeli border police. An Israeli policeman was killed.

Lebanon's Hizbollah fighters struck at Israeli troops in a disputed border area, sparking some of the worst clashes since Hizbollah seized three Israeli soldiers there in October 2000.

An Israeli force thrust into a Palestinian-held part of the divided West Bank city of Hebron and a tank fired rockets, witnesses said. The army said the incursion was a response to Palestinian gunfire and troops would not stay long.

Jibril al-Rajoub, a top Palestinian security official, said Israeli troops and tanks had surrounded his West Bank offices, threatening to shell them if he failed to hand over wanted militants. He denied any militants were inside.

An Israeli military source confirmed Rajoub's office was surrounded but did not confirm any threat to open fire.

At least 1,123 Palestinians and 384 Israelis have been killed since Palestinians launched their revolt against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in September 2000.

Israel criticised the Security Council resolution for not stressing Palestinian responsibility for "terrorist" attacks which it said had prompted its drive into Palestinian areas.

The Palestinian Authority said the resolution was positive and demanded that Israel lift its siege of Arafat's compound at once and pull out of Ramallah and other Palestinian towns.

- REUTERS

Feature: Middle East

Map

UN: Information on the Question of Palestine

Israel's Permanent Mission to the UN

Palestine's Permanent Observer Mission to the UN

Middle East Daily

Arabic News

Arabic Media Internet Network

Jerusalem Post

Israel Wire

US Department of State - Middle East Peace Process