Los Angeles Times
RAMALLAH, West Bank – Israeli combat helicopters Tuesday fired missiles into a police building 100 feet from Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s headquarters while he was inside, part of an escalating military offensive launched across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Arafat wasn’t injured in the strike but abruptly repaired to an underground bunker. The Israeli army said it wasn’t trying to hit Arafat, but the strike was heavy in symbolic significance, in effect hitting the Palestinian leader where he lives.
Elsewhere, Israel expanded its newly declared “war on terror,” launched in the wake of an especially devastating trio of Palestinian suicide bombings that killed 28 people in 12 hours over the weekend. Tuesday’s strikes were wide in geographical scope, with warplanes and helicopters bombarding at least eight targets in five cities and towns.
In Gaza City, F-16 fighter jets reduced a police headquarters to rubble, killing a policeman and a 15-year-old boy, Palestinian residents said. Palestinian hospitals said more than 100 people were injured, 20 seriously, and that they included numerous schoolchildren who were rushing home after the air raid started.
The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon formally declared Arafat’s Palestinian Authority a “terror-supporting entity” earlier Tuesday, and Sharon vowed to fight what Israel regards as Arafat-sponsored terrorism “with all means at its disposal.”
Israel accuses Arafat of failing to rein in Islamic militants who kill and maim Israelis.
In every case in 24 hours of raids, Israeli forces attacked potent symbols of Arafat’s power or Palestinian nationalism: police headquarters, his personal aircraft, his airport.
Speaking a couple of hours after the attack near his compound, Arafat accused Sharon of sabotaging the Palestinian leader’s tentative efforts at cracking down on Palestinian terrorism.
“Before this aggression started, we had succeeded … many had been arrested,” Arafat told CNN. “He is escalating his military activities against our people, against our towns, against our cities, against our establishments.”
At least 110 militants have been arrested by Palestinian authorities, according to both sides, but Israel considers the arrests insignificant.
The Israeli attacks may have been more than retaliation. Sharon’s ultimate goal may be to marginalize Arafat once and for all, many Israelis and Palestinians suspect.
Palestinian officials argue that Sharon’s offensive is destroying the very security forces and infrastructure that must round up and hold suspects.
“How can Israel expect us to take measures to arrest people while they are targeting our police centers?” Abed Rabbo said. “This is not a war against Hamas and terrorism. This is a war against the Palestinian Authority, a war to undermine President Arafat.”
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