Johannesburg, Ramallah | Sunday
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki was approached by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to intervene in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, SABC radio news reported on Saturday night.
Mbeki denounced what he termed the ”attack on Palestine by Israel” and said Arafat had urged him to try to salvage the situation.
”Yesterday (Friday) I sent a message to President Bush (US President George Bush) to urge him to use whatever influence he has to get Israelis out of the compound, to pull back,” Mbeki told SABC.
”The reality of this matter is that no amount of violence is going to solve that problem. The more violence that is used the worse the situation gets. Even today I speak to governments of Europe on the best way to put this to an end,” he said.
In Ramallah on Sunday fighting swept up to the very door of Yasser Arafat’s inner office after Israeli troops blew a hole in the ceiling of the adjacent dining room, a senior Palestinian official said.
Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told Al-Jazeera television that troops had entered the office, adding: ”We are expecting the worst”.
On Saturday, Israeli troops fought pitched street battles with Palestinians and rounded up hundreds of men as their siege of Yasser Arafat’s base went into a second day despite a UN call for their withdrawal.
The Israelis reacted cooly to a UN Security Council resolution seeking their pullout but welcomed its appeal for an immediate ceasefire to halt 18 months of bloodshed that has claimed more than 1 640 lives.
After storming its way to Arafat’s doorstep on Friday the army hunkered down outside the Palestinian leader’s offices while bulldozers levelled the seven other buildings in his Ramallah compound.
Arafat was barricaded in a three-storey building without water, power and phone lines, officials said. The batteries on his mobile phones were said to have run out by midday.
”President Arafat has no communication with the outside world, all the phone lines are cut,” said a senior Palestinian official. But Arafat somehow managed to speak by phone later with Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit.
More than 10 tanks also surrounded a top Palestinian security official in the West Bank, Jibril Rajoub, in his headquarters just outside of Ramallah, a Palestinian official said.
The Israeli operation was launched to avenge a suicide bombing that killed 21 people on Wednesday as they sat down to a Passover meal in northern Israel – one of the worst Palestinian attacks in their intifada, or uprising.
Heavy machine gun fire echoed through the mostly deserted streets of Ramallah early on Saturday as Israeli soldiers fought with Palestinian security forces barricaded in office buildings.
Five Palestinians were found dead in a bank building, witnesses said, bringing to 10 the number who have died in the incursion launched before dawn on Friday. Two Israelis were also reported dead.
Elsewhere, an Israeli border guard and two Palestinians were killed in a clash on the Israeli side of the border with the West Bank. One Palestinian was shot dead and the other blown up by a bomb in his car.
Israeli forces took over the Ramallah office of the Voice of Palestine radio station which abruptly halted broadcasts, one of its journalists said.
The army rounded up hundreds of men, going from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, demanding by loudspeaker in Arabic that all males 16 to 50-years old surrender, Palestinian security officials said.
They were gathered in schools, questioned and their names checked against lists of the wanted. It was not known how many were held but an army representative said earlier on Saturday that they had ”arrested” 145 Palestinians.
Among those held was Sakher Habash a top official of Arafat’s Fatah movement. Also captured were two militants, Abdelkarim Awes and Hader Amir Debaya, who were on Israel’s most-wanted list as suspects in a string of attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said the Ramallah incursion was just the beginning of his drive to ”isolate” Arafat and stamp out Palestinian attacks. Sharon branded Arafat an ”enemy”.
He called up 20 000 reservists for a campaign he said would last ”at least weeks” and feature operations on ”a large scale without precedent”.
Sharon was to meet with top security aides on Sunday to discuss the Ramallah siege.
The Israeli drive was extended late Friday to the town of Beit Jala, as tanks stormed the locality on the edge of Bethlehem that is often used by Palestinian gunmen to fire on a nearby Jewish settlement.
On Saturday, the Israelis sent three armoured vehicles a short way into the town of Hebron, about 40 kilometres south of Ramallah, where they opened fire on Palestinian targets, witnesses said.
In New York, the UN Security Council passed Norwegian-sponsored Resolution 1402 on the crisis by a margin of 14-0 with the Syrian delegation staying away from the vote.
The resolution urges both parties ”to move immediately to a meaningful ceasefire” and ”calls for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian cities, including Ramallah”.
Thousands of people demonstrated in support of Arafat across the Arab world, including in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, while several European leaders warned Israel its military operations might spawn new Palestinian attacks.
But the United States stood firm behind its main Middle East ally, even if it did vote for the UN resolution.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell did not endorse Israel’s offensive but made no explicit calls for an Israel withdrawal. He also said on Friday that Arafat was to blame for failing to stop violence against Israeli citizens.- Sapa-AFP