Palestinians overcome by grief

IN towns and refugee camps across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, tens of thousands of Palestinians poured into the streets with wails of grief and volleys of gunfire after the death of Yasser Arafat.

“Our father is dead,” construction worker Fathi Abu Adnan said in Gaza City, where youths burned tyres, sending up plumes of black smoke as Koranic verses blared from loudspeakers.

Some mourners bore portraits of Mr Arafat, for decades one of the world’s most recognizable leaders. Short and balding, his stubbled face framed by a checkered black-and-white head dress, he had usually appeared in public in military fatigues and with a pistol strapped to his waist.

In Gaza City, Safa Omar gave birth to twins and named one Yasser and the other Arafat to honour the late leader. Doctors said they expected many babies born in coming days to be named after him. “One Arafat dies and 1,000 will arise,” said one.

As Palestinians mourned, many Israelis heaped bitterness on the man they accused of orchestrating a four-year-old “intifada,” or uprising, and for militant attacks that have killed hundreds of their people.

At an army airfield outside Paris, Mr Arafat’s wife, Suha, wept as a French honour guard loaded his flag-draped casket onto a plane bound for Cairo for a funeral on Friday to be attended by leaders from around the world.

With condolences for Mr Arafat’s death pouring in from across the globe, Palestinian officials urged Israel to revive stalled talks, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said it could be a “turning point” for peace if Mr Arafat’s successors ended violence.

“The death of Yasser Arafat is a significant moment in Palestinians’ history,” US President George Bush said in a statement. “We hope that the future will bring peace and the fulfilment of the aspirations for an independent, democratic Palestine that is at peace with its neighbours.”

Israel, however, moved quickly to seal off the West Bank and Gaza Strip from the Jewish state, fearing an explosion of violent Palestinian protest.

The militant Islamic group Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction and the driving force behind a campaign of suicide bombings, vowed to keep up attacks against the “Zionist enemy”. Within hours of Mr Arafat’s death, militants from his Fatah movement attacked a Jewish settlement in Gaza in what they said signalled the start of a new round of clashes. Soldiers killed three Palestinians, at least two of them gunmen. Another Palestinian was shot dead in the West Bank, medics said.

Mr Arafat died after suffering a brain haemorrhage on Tuesday at the Paris hospital where he was flown on October 29 from the West Bank headquarters where he had been penned by Israel for more than 2-1/2 years. Details of his illness remain a mystery.

The Palestinian Authority declared a 40-day mourning period after which many predict a power struggle.

There was no sorrow, however, among Israeli officials. Justice Minister Yosef Lapid spoke of a “deep hatred for a man who made terrorism a method in the world”.