Ramallah | Friday
AN ISRAELI bulldozer started demolishing a wall at the main entrance of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah on Friday morning, shortly after the Israeli cabinet declared Arafat an ”enemy”.
”A bulldozer is opening a gap in the wall in front of the main entrance,” a source said.
The bulldozer was backed up by two tanks and was about 50 metres from the Palestinian leader’s offices, in a compound which had been surrounded at dawn Friday by more than 20 Israeli tanks.
Top Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeina responded by saying: ”this is a clear declaration of war against the Palestinian people.
”This is a very dangerous decision,” he said.
Lebanon, as chair of the Arab summit, condemned Israel’s ”barbarous war” against Arafat and called on the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union to intervene to halt it.
”Only hours after the Arab peace initiative was adopted at the Beirut summit, Israel responded with a barbarous war and an arrogant savage aggression”, a Lebanese foreign ministry statement said.
”What Israel is doing confirms again that it is a terrorist state which rejects peace,” the statement added, following Israel’s occupation of the city of Ramallah where Arafat has his West Bank headquarters.
”The presidency of the Arab summit denounces in the strongest manner this arrogant aggression and calls on the (UN) Security Council, the United States, the Russian Federation and the European Union and all those who back the Arab peace initiative to act immediately to deter Israel and its aggression.”
Israel launched an all-out drive Friday against the Palestinian leadership, smashing into Yasser Arafat’s base in Ramallah.
Israeli tanks, troops and helicopters were reported to be in control of the West Bank city. Heavy clashes erupted, leaving at least six dead and more than two dozen people wounded.
Earlier, Sharon said at a press conference that his government ”has decided to consider Arafat, who is the head of a terrorist coalition, as an enemy, who at this stage must be isolated.”
Speaking at the same press conference, Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said, however, that Israel had ”no interest in re-conquering or re-occupying the Palestinian territories. ”The only thing that interests us is to fight against the infrastructure of terrorism,” he said, adding that Israel had no interest in fighting the Palestinian people.
”Once we achieve that goal we are very interested in returning to normal life,” Ben Eliezer said. Meanwhile, the death from a suicide bombing in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya rose to 22, including the bomber, on Thursday, public radio said after one of the 100 injured succumbed to injuries.
Medical teams had identified most of the people killed Wednesday night in the packed restaurant of the Park Hotel when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover, officials said.
Among the dead were tourists visiting Israel for the holiday, the second holiest festival in the Jewish calendar.
The attack was claimed by Islamic radicals Hamas. – Sapa-AFP