UN tells Israel to end siege of Arafat

GAZA - The Israeli Army killed nine Palestinians yesterday in one of its biggest raids in the Gaza Strip and faced international isolation over its siege of Yasser Arafat's base after the United Nations Security Council said it must stop.

The United States abstained in the vote, signalling the growing impatience of Israel's key ally and the main Middle East peacebroker. Washington is seeking calm in the region and Arab support for its preparations for possible war with Iraq.

Dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles backed by helicopter gunships poured into two Gaza City suburbs hours after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the Army, having besieged Arafat's offices, could target the militant Hamas next.

The Army said it blew up 13 metal workshops suspected of forming a makeshift weapons factory, as well as the family home of a militant.

The raid met fierce resistance and prompted gunbattles in which Palestinian hospital officials said nine Palestinians, some of them non-combatants, were killed and more than 20 hurt.

It was the bloodiest day in Gaza since Israel killed a Hamas military commander, his lieutenant and 14 civilians in an air strike on Gaza City on July 23.

Israeli media have criticised Sharon for doing little to rein in Hamas while besieging Arafat's headquarters in response to two suicide bombings which killed seven people, both claimed by Islamic militant groups, one of them Hamas.

Troops have demolished most of Arafat's presidential complex since last Friday and penned him and more than 200 others into a single building as they press demands for the surrender of 50 suspected militants Israel says are inside.

The Security Council adopted a resolution demanding Israel end its siege of the compound, using a compromise European text that also called on the Palestinian Authority to bring those responsible for attacks to justice.

US and Arab delegates had been deadlocked on how to chastise Israel for its siege, prompting the Europeans to try to mediate and find a compromise.

The US abstained but did not use its veto power to kill the resolution. Washington has previously vetoed similar resolutions, but diplomats said it decided not to this time to avoid alienating Arab opinion in its campaign for UN support against Iraq.

Calling the resolution flawed, James Cunningham, the US representative, said: "It failed to explicitly condemn the terrorist groups and those who provide them with political cover, support and safe haven."

Earlier, the White House said President George W. Bush "views what Israel is doing now as unhelpful to the cause of bringing about reform in Palestinian institutions".

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Israel's battering of the Palestinian Authority was a "bankrupt policy" that bolstered extremists.

Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said he would not budge from a demand that Arafat hand over militants, including several senior security officials, and that Israel would bring them to trial.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat held talks with Arafat after Israel refused to give the Palestinians a list of the suspected militants in the compound and demanded Arafat draw up a list identifying them. Erekat said Arafat rejected the proposal.

In Hebron, a Palestinian gunman fired at pilgrims at Jewish Sukkoth holiday celebrations, killing one Israeli man and wounding three youngsters.

In Gaza, witnesses said Israeli soldiers destroyed a two-storey house belonging to the family of Mohammad Farhat, a militant who killed five people in the Jewish settlement of Atzmona in March before being shot dead.

- REUTERS

Further reading
Feature: Middle East

Related links