Nablus, Saturday
IT’s an all-out war now in the Middle-East – Katyusha rockets were fired from Lebanon on the Israeli-controlled sector of the disputed border village of Ghajar on Saturday, say Lebanese police, and Israeli tanks and machineguns fired on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s office, say Palestinian security sources inside his Ramallah compound.
In the Ghajar attack, the Israeli army said three civilians were wounded, adding that Hezbollah guerrillas fired on the ambulances evacuating them from the area.
The Lebanese police said a civilian car drove down from near the village of Wazzani, about a kilometre from the Lebanese-Israeli border and fired either six or seven Katyusha rockets in the direction of Ghajar before fleeing.
Lebanese security forces are searching for the attackers, they added. Lebanon’s Shiite guerrillas are to be active in the area.
In response to the attack, Israeli artillery positions fired 15 shells in the direction of Wazzani.
In the other attack, Yasser Arafat was unhurt after Israeli tanks fired machineguns and tank shells at his besieged offices in Ramallah on Saturday, injuring three of his bodyguards, said security sources inside the Palestinian leader’s offices.
One of the bodyguards was seriously wounded, the sources said, adding that ambulances were unable to reach the compound because of Israel’s capture of the West Bank town since last week.
The tanks started firing around 6:30 pm (1530 GMT) at the office, where Arafat has been pinned down since March 29.
Several other buildings were also hit, the sources said.
In other news, the Arab countries have decided to send immediately $330-million in financial aid to the Palestinians to help them cope with a massive Israeli sweep into the West Bank, an Arab official said.
The Arab summit in Beirut that ended March 28 agreed to send $55-million a month over six months to Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.
However, Arab foreign ministers decided on Friday to send the $330-million immediately in one lump sum to meet the needs of the Palestinians and rebuild what was destroyed in the Israeli offensive launched March 29, he said.
The foreign ministers met in Cairo on Friday in preparation for an emergency meeting that opened on Saturday to find ways to support the Palestinians.
The ministers continued meeting behind closed doors following an opening session in which Palestinian minister for international cooperation Nabil Shaath urged Arab states to protect Arafat.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who departs for the Middle East on Sunday, is to arrive at week’s end most likely Friday in Israel, US officials said on Saturday.
Speaking anonymously, the officials said Powell, whose trip was announced at the White House Thursday by President George Bush, will travel first to Morocco to meet with King Mohammed VI as well as Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah ben Abdel Aziz.
Travelling on to Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials, Powell is then to make a long-scheduled stopover in Madrid to meet with officials from Spain, the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, as well as his Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov.
The officials said Jordan’s King Abdullah II could be the last dignitary on the secretary’s itinerary before he arrives in Jerusalem. The White House said on Friday that Powell had ”no plans” as of yet to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, but Powell himself has not ruled out the possibility.
Meanwhile, the armed wing of radical Islamic militant group Hamas vowed on Saturday an unprecedented revenge against Israel after six of its fighters were killed in an Israeli missile strike.
”It will be a new kind of punishment this time, of an unaccustomed type that will shake their entity and destroy its pillars,” the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.
Six Hamas members were killed on Friday in an Israeli helicopter strike, including a commander said to have masterminded the suicide attack that killed 26 people at the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday.
The Brigades have claimed responsibility for many deadly anti-Israeli attacks in the past.
In other news, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said on Saturday that his country’s army should end its invasion of the West Bank ”as quickly as possible.
”In my opinion, this matter should be ended as quickly as possible and political negotiations begun,” Peres told Israeli public radio. He was responding to calls by US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday for Israel to withdraw its troops from the West Bank ”without delay.”
”I do not believe that the problem (of terrorism) can be solved solely by military means,” Peres said. ”Even if we succeed in stopping the current evil, we will not stop it from springing up again. The only way to stop it is to deal with the problem at its root,” he added.
”Israel should reflect carefully on whether continuing the (military) operation for one week more, or conversely, shortening it by a week will have decisive consequences on the outcome.”
Following a suicide bombing in northern Israel on March 27, Israel launched a massive invasion of Palestinian-controlled territory in the West Bank and has re-occupied six of the area’s eight major towns. – Sapa-AFP