Israel attacks Arafat’s offices

Associated Press

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli troops broke into Yasser Arafat’s West Bank office today and began destroying buildings, according to a Palestinian official, a day after a Palestinian blew up a huge car bomb next to a bus, killing himself and 17 Israelis.

The incursion into Ramallah came exactly five weeks after U.S. intervention helped lift a 34-day siege of Arafat’s headquarters and amid talk of renewed action against the Palestinian leader.

Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers broke a huge hole in the outside wall of the city-block size compound, Israel Radio reported, and sent bulldozers inside to knock down structures. The radio report said Israel did not intend to harm Arafat.

Troops entered the compound and began destroying intelligence offices about 200 feet from Arafat’s office, a senior Palestinian security official said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Israeli military said it acted amid "a wave of Palestinian terrorism sweeping the state of Israel," including the bus attack. It said Arafat’s Palestinian Authority is "directly responsible for terrorism that originates in its territory."

Several ministers have demanded that Israel expel Arafat, and Israel’s media have speculated that another major terror attack would prompt such an action. But other Israelis warn that an expulsion would lead to chaos and more violence.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told CNN that he’d spoken to Arafat by phone, and the Palestinian leader was safe. "But there was heavy shelling, heavy shooting. I could hear it over the phone, he said.

"This is a major, major escalation and I hope that we can have the Americans and Europeans intervening immediately," Erekat said.

Israel Radio reported that Israel did not intend to harm Arafat. It said that Israeli forces included giant bulldozers, which were knocking down buildings. The area was declared a closed military zone, banning civilians from entering, and a curfew was declared in the area.

A senior White House official said the United States was neither asked for nor did it grant a "green light" for the Israeli action in Ramallah, though it did not appear to be helpful in the push for peace.

White House chief of staff Andrew Card said President Bush was notified of the Israeli action, adding that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was looking into the situation.

Israel’s stated goal of Arafat’s earlier confinement was to isolate him, but the virtual house arrest turned him into a heroic figure in the eyes of Palestinians and much of the Arab world.

The monthlong siege ended when Arafat agreed to place six wanted Palestinians in custody under U.S. and British supervision.

The suicide bombing Wednesday near the northern city of Megiddo was carried out by an attacker in an explosives-laden car moving in tandem with the bus — the first such attack in 20 months of bloodshed.

The Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility and said the attack was timed to mark the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast War, when Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, claimed by the Palestinians.