| At least five Palestinians
and two Israelis -- one an officer -- were killed in Friday's fighting.
Arafat is holed up in a two-room office with Israeli tanks just outside,
"I really fear for his life and the lives around him," Palestinian chief
negotiator Saeb Erakat told CNN. "This is a very grave development and
it could lead to a massacre."
In Ramallah, Arafat told
CNN on Saturday he was under complete siege and remained trapped in his
office. He said seven buildings have been heavily damaged and his building
has no electricity since Israel's army cut off power Friday.
Speaking by candlelight just
before the reports of the attack on his embattled office, Arafat called
for help.
"I am appealing to the whole
international world to stop this aggression against our people," he said,
"this military escalation day by night, this killing .... Where has this
been done all over the world?"
In response to the Israeli
incursions, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution early Saturday
demanding Israel withdraw from Palestinian areas, including the West Bank
city of Ramallah.
Just outside Ramallah, in
al Bireh, Israeli forces rounded up hundreds of Palestinian males between
the ages of 15 and 45. About 260 men were taken into a nearby school for
questioning. Israeli forces have actually detained about 140 men in the
past two days.
Meanwhile, the bodies of
five Palestinians, four in military-style uniforms, were found shot to
death in another building in downtown Ramallah on Saturday. CNN's Michael
Holmes went to the scene before the bodies were removed and said hundreds
of shell casings from M-16s, the weapon of choice for the Israeli army,
littered the floor.
The Israeli army said that
gunfight began when a Palestinian opened fire on an army force that was
outside the building, and then threw a hand grenade. "In response, the
Israeli army forces entered the building to search for the gunman, and
when they entered, the gunmen opened fire from one of the rooms," the army
said.
The Israeli incursions followed
three Palestinian terror attacks since the beginning of the Passover holiday
on Wednesday night. The attacks have killed 28 Israelis and wounded more
than 100. Twenty-two of those killed by a suicide bombing at a Passover
celebration at a hotel in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya.
Latest developments:
An Israeli army spokesman
said that the army had surrounded the office of Jibril Rajoub, the head
of preventative security in the West Bank, in Beitunia near Ramallah. Rajoub,
speaking on CNN shortly after the arrival of the troops, said that the
Israelis had demanded "wanted people" who are inside the headquarters.
Israeli military sources
said an Israeli army armored personnel carrier entered the Palestinian-controlled
area of Hebron after shooting came from the area. The carrier entered the
area to "conduct searches and was planning to leave the area when they
were finished searching," a military source said. But Palestinian security
sources said three Israeli tanks and a jeep entered the area firing tank
shells and machine guns and that the battle was ongoing.
The administration of U.S.
President George W. Bush worked closely with the Norwegian government in
drafting the U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Israel to withdraw
from Ramallah. "We support the resolution, we voted for it and we helped
draft it," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe on Saturday.
Israeli outposts near the
Lebanese border came under fire Saturday by Hezbollah forces, according
to Israeli military sources. The Hezbollah militants fired missiles and
mortar bombs toward the army border posts in Shebaa Farms, the sources
said. Israeli forces returned fire and no Israeli soldiers were injured
in the attack, the military sources said.
Israeli border police exchanged
fire with a Palestinian gunman Saturday on the Israel-northern West Bank
border near Bakah al Sharkiah, Israeli police said. The gunman was killed
and one Israeli police officer was wounded.
The Israel Defense Forces
said its troops moved into the Arab town of Beit Jala overnight Friday,
after a mortar was fired into the nearby Jewish neighborhood of Gilo on
the outskirts of Jerusalem. No one was injured in the attack.
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
-- the military wing of Arafat's Fatah movement -- claimed responsibility
for the latest Palestinian suicide bombing, which killed at least two Israelis
in Jerusalem on Friday. The bomber was identified by Al Aqsa as an 18-year-old
woman from the Deheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem. Police said at least
17 people were wounded in the attack at a grocery store in the neighborhood
of Kiryat Yovel.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell condemned the Passover violence against Israelis, called on Arafat
to take action against those responsible, and said the United States is
"gravely concerned" by Israeli actions in Ramallah. Powell also said the
United States understands the need for Israel to protect itself, and that
U.S. Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni would remain in the region to work
toward a cease-fire.
When Arafat was asked if
he would rein in the violence as requested by the United States, Arafat
angrily said the Palestinians were currently suffering from "the terrorist
activities of the Israeli occupation." He also scoffed at the U.S. announcement
that the Israelis had promised he would not be harmed. Arafat said the
focus should be on "the problem of our people, of our liberty, of our independent
Palestinian state."
Zinni's mission continues
The raid on Arafat's compound
marked Israel's response to a series of Palestinian terror attacks that
occurred even as international efforts to lay the groundwork for a cease-fire
intensified.
Zinni has spent the past
two weeks in the region pushing for the implementation of a plan to break
the cycle of attack and reprisal, and, on Thursday, the Arab League adopted
a Saudi-proposed blueprint for peace. Within hours, another suicide bomb
went off at a market in Jerusalem.
It also represented yet another
downward lurch in Israeli-Palestinian relations, which have steadily deteriorated
since the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi last
October.
As terror attacks continued
unabated despite repeated calls by Arafat for an end to the violence, the
Sharon government moved from regarding the Palestinian Authority leader
as a potential partner for peace to calling him "irrelevant" and refusing
to deal with him. The nadir came Friday, when Sharon described Arafat as
an enemy who "established a coalition of terror against Israel" and would
therefore be "isolated."
NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES
March 30 — After another suicide bomber launched an attack
Saturday in Tel Aviv, a clearly frustrated President Bush called on Yasser
Arafat to do “a lot more” to stop such strikes. Palestinian officials,
meanwhile, said Arafat was warned Israeli troops may enter his compound
in Ramallah later Saturday to arrest wanted militants —although Israeli
officials again denied any plans to seize the Palestinian leader. Bush’s
comments and the latest violence came after the United States joined other
U.N. Security Council members in adopting a resolution calling for the
withdrawal of Israeli troops from Ramallah and other Palestinian cities. |
