The Associated Press
Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers move toward the center of the West Bank city of Ramallah early today. Sporadic gunfire and tank shell fire could be heard as Israeli forces entered the city.

Israeli tanks move on Arafat compound

Palestinian leader declared 'enemy' after two more suicide attacks

Tracy Wilkinson Los Angeles Times

JERUSALEM -- Israeli forces early today laid siege to the Ramallah headquarters of Yasser Arafat, fought fierce battles with his bodyguards and began demolishing the outer walls of his compound. Israel formally declared the Palestinian leader an enemy and said he would be "completely isolated."

Arafat desperately appealed to world leaders to save him as Israel launched its most punishing offensive yet against the Palestinians in the wake of a Passover suicide bombing that killed 21 Israelis and Jews.

About 30 tanks roared into the West Bank city of Ramallah before dawn and surrounded Arafat's compound. His guards manned the walls and roofs and exchanged fire with tanks shooting heavy machine guns. Several Palestinians were reported wounded.

The tanks then began shelling the blocklong compound, witnesses said, setting fire to several buildings inside.

"The situation is very grave," Arafat adviser Nabil abu Rudaineh said from inside the besieged buildings, where the Palestinian Authority president and his inner circle were holed up. "We've been trying to reach world leaders, but it's early and they're still asleep."

All-night meeting

Ignoring Arafat's 11th-hour offer of a cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presided over an extraordinary all-night meeting of his government to plan the offensive. Many members wanted to expel Arafat, but the majority decided to cut him off from the outside world but allow him to remain in Ramallah.

The army was ordered to "strike everywhere" and to destroy as much "terrorist infrastructure" as possible. "Restraint is dead," one official said. "We will fight terror until it is vanquished."

Israel also called up combat unit reserves to expand its manpower, another reflection of the deepening war footing that Israel and the Palestinians are now on.

In addition to the killing of 21 people at a Passover Seder on Wednesday, a Palestinian gunman on Thursday burst into a Jewish settlement in the West Bank and killed four Israelis from the same family, and early today a Palestinian infiltrated a settlement in the Gaza Strip and stabbed two Israelis to death.

Medical examiners worked to identify mangled bodies from Wednesday's suicide bombing in the coastal city of Netanya. The attack was one of the deadliest in 18 months of relentless bloodshed, and its psychological impact for Israelis was all the more devastating because it came on a date of utmost religious significance for Jews, the opening night of Passover. Israelis called it a watershed event, a point of no return.

Israeli officials earlier said the army had been instructed to abide by a commitment not to physically harm Arafat. However, Sharon said this week that he was sorry he ever made that promise to President Bush.

Earlier on Thursday, in a clear bid to temper the fury of the expected Israeli onslaught, Arafat summoned reporters to his headquarters and said he was ready to work toward a truce. But he didn't declare a cease-fire outright, and his statements fell short of the unilateral cease-fire he declared Dec.16 under intense U.S. pressure.

"I assert our readiness to implement an immediate cease-fire, and we have informed Gen. Zinni," Arafat told the news conference, referring to U.S. special envoy Anthony Zinni, whose truce-seeking mission here has all but collapsed.

Opening the sober, angry Cabinet meeting, where the Passover killings dominated the agenda, Sharon said Arafat and only Arafat was to blame. The prime minister said Israel now faces "a new and different situation."

This morning, Sharon emerged from the seven-hour meeting and said his government was launching an "extended operation against Palestinian terrorism."

Palestinians accused Israel of ignoring efforts by Arab states and U.S. mediators to ease tensions. The Bush administration pressed Sharon to show restraint but also called on Arafat to make an Arabic-language appeal to his people for calm. Neither Middle Eastern leader appeared to be paying heed.

Attack in Elon Moreh

In Elon Moreh, a Jewish settlement near the West Bank city of Nablus, a Palestinian gunman burst into a house where a settler family was celebrating Passover with guests. He killed or mortally wounded four members of the family and then barricaded himself on an upper story when armed settlers and troops rushed to the scene.

Two sons in the family managed to hide, and for a time it was thought that the gunman had taken hostages. But the two were able to leap from a window and escape.

In a gun battle, soldiers shot dead the Palestinian. The radical Islamic organization Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, as it had for Wednesday's bombing. Settlements throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip were placed on high alert.

Elon Moreh is one of the more radical settlements among the more than 170 that fragment the West Bank and Gaza Strip and are considered illegal under international law. Yet in the current climate of hardened hatreds, the radicals have become more mainstream.

"There may be only one terrorist in Elon Moreh tonight, but there are tens of thousands of terrorists throughout the land of Israel," the settlement's rabbi, Elyakim Levanon, said. "They must all be cleaned out. Otherwise, there will be no peace, not only in Elon Moreh but in all of the land of Israel."

About the same time that Elon Moreh was under attack, Arafat was cautioning that a massive Israeli military operation now would endanger a new peace proposal endorsed at an Arab League summit just concluded in Beirut.

Israel scoffed at Arafat's gestures.

"What we need are actions, not empty statements after which more Israelis die," Sharon advisor Dore Gold said.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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