Jerusalem

An Israeli who tried to set sail for his native Moldova on a raft strung together with water bottles has been intercepted by coastal guards, the Maariv daily reported on Wednesday. ”I am not crazy,” Genadi Lambas (38) reportedly told coast guards after his raft was intercepted 28km from the Israeli coast.

Nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu was arrested on Thursday for allegedly revealing classified information, seven months after he completed an 18-year prison sentence for treason, police said. Police spokesperson Gil Kleiman said Vanunu was detained at his rented rooms in Jerusalem’s St George’s church, but declined to discuss the nature of his alleged disclosures.

Israel on Thursday imposed a major clampdown on the occupied territories after Yasser Arafat’s death due to fears of attacks as armed militants loyal to the veteran Palestinian leader vowed to avenge his passing. Immediately following the announcement early on Thursday that Arafat had died in a French hospital, the Israeli army began deploying reinforcements around towns and Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

With the death of veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has lost his closest enemy, whom he chased, hated and finally isolated for three years in Ramallah. For Sharon, Arafat never qualified as a sufficiently credible Palestinian partner with whom he could bring a peace agreement to fruition.

Israeli authorities are bracing themselves for a violent backlash to the planned pull-out from Gaza, as growing fears were voiced on Tuesday that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s life is in danger from extremists. ”I am afraid that someone will try to kill the prime minister,” Labour party leader Shimon Peres told the Maariv daily.

The Israeli army expanded its massive operation in northern Gaza, which has already left 112 Palestinians dead in the last two weeks, by moving into the town of Beit Lahiya overnight on Monday. Colonel Eyal Eizenberg said that his troops had met significant resistance as they moved into the town to the north of the Jabaliya refugee camp.

Continuing violence in the Middle East is harmful not just to the people of the region but those outside it as well, United States First Lady Laura Bush said in comments published on Thursday in a rare interview with an Arabic newspaper. Meanwhile, several violent events were reported in the Middle East.

The United States will sell Israel nearly 5 000 smart bombs in one of the largest weapons deals between the allies in years, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Tuesday. The deal could face political controversy since Israel has used such bombs in fighting with the Palestinians, the daily said.

The Israeli government said on Monday it expects an upsurge in militant attacks ahead of its Gaza withdrawal, as the United States insisted the pull-out should be consistent with the international road map for peace. ”Hamas will want to portray the Gaza withdrawal as escapism on our part,” said a senior Israeli government official.

Israeli ministers approved a compensation package on Tuesday for settlers due to be uprooted from their homes as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejected calls to submit his Gaza pull-out plan to a referendum. The meeting represents the first concrete step towards the implementation of the so-called disengagement plan.

An Israeli military satellite fell into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday after a botched launched from southern Israel, military officials said. Analysts said the satellite was designed to help expand Israel’s coverage of its more distant enemies, particularly Iran. The failure of the launch is seen as a major setback for the military.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip evacuated at the same time, instead of in three stages, officials said on Monday, reflecting a major shift in position. On Monday, Sharon and Minister of Defence Shaul Mofaz presented the new plan to the Security Cabinet, a forum of senior ministers.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appeared determined on Thursday to plough on with his Gaza pull-out plan after his party shot down his ambition to bring the opposition Labour party into a new coalition. ”The prime minister will pursue the application of his plan with the same timetable,” a senior official said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Gaza pull-out plan was hanging in the balance on Wednesday as his right-wing Likud party was to vote on his ambitions to bring the opposition Labour party into a new broad-based coalition. Meanwhile, Yasser Arafat made a rare admission of failure in his own keynote address to MPs.

Months after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his plan to pull Jewish settlers out of Gaza, portraying it as a sacrifice for peace, the government is grabbing more land for West Bank settlements. Israeli peace groups and Palestinian officials say thousands of homes are under construction in the main settlements, in addition to an expansion of Jewish outposts, illegal under Israeli law.

The Israeli government plans to offer about 7 500 Jewish settlers it wants to evacuate from the Gaza Strip a choice of four compensation options, Ha’aretz daily reported on Monday. The Israeli Justice Ministry believes the draft legislation laying out the four options will be submitted to the Cabinet in the autumn.

Israel fears an outbreak of total anarchy and the complete collapse of the Palestinian Authority in the event of Yasser Arafat’s death, according to an internal Foreign Ministry document leaked on Wednesday. The document warned that ”hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians were likely to march on Jerusalem.

Israel’s opposition leader Shimon Peres says that his Labour party will decide on Tuesday whether to accept an offer by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to join a new broad-based coalition government. Peres said that his party will ”decide yes or no” after meeting for a first round of talks with Sharon on Monday.

France and Israel are set to sign their biggest defence deal in decades which will see the state-owned Israel Aircraft Industries transfer its know-how for the manufacture of military drones. The deal, worth between and -million, will be signed during the Eurosatory 2004 international exhibition for land and land-air defence that opens on Monday in Villepinte, north of Paris.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was facing a battle on Monday to keep his coalition from fracturing and maintain his majority in Parliament after winning qualified Cabinet approval for his Gaza pullout plan. In Cairo, meanwhile, preparations ahead of the withdrawal were going ahead.

Stunned and embarrassed by revelations of new cases of abuse by Israeli border policemen toward Palestinians, the commander of the corps ordered a two-hour halt to operations on Wednesday for lectures to its members emphasising behavioural norms.

Marwan Barghuti, found guilty by an Israeli court on several counts of murder on Thursday, is one of the main inspirations behind the intifada and remains Yasser Arafat’s natural successor in the eyes of many Palestinians. The Tel Aviv district court found Barghuti guilty of four of the 37 charges against him, in the highest-level ”terror trial” held since the uprising broke out in September 2000.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is considering bringing a slightly revised version of his Gaza pull-out plan to the Cabinet within two weeks, including a phased withdrawal and a possible international force to guard the border, an Israeli government official said on Wednesday.

Palestinians fired a barrage of homemade rockets and mortar shells at Gaza Strip settlements and towns inside Israel in retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Israel said on Tuesday. Over two days, 15 Qassam rockets hit Israeli targets, wounding one Israeli and damaging at least five structures, the army said.