Israeli forces storm Palestinian HQ

Israeli soldiers stormed the fortress-like Palestinian headquarters in the city of Hebron early today, occupying the seventh of eight main West Bank centres.

Palestinian security officials said two policemen were killed.

The violence came as Israeli and Palestinian leaders expressed widely divergent views on a Middle East policy speech delivered yesterday by US President George W Bush.

He called for a new Palestinian leadership and an end to terrorism, holding out the prospect of a provisional Palestinian state.

The Israeli military said soldiers entered Hebron to operate against the ‘‘terrorist infrastructure’’ there. A military statement said a ‘‘large number’’ of suspects had been arrested. Also, soldiers discovered an explosives laboratory.

The assault on the hilltop building in Hebron began when Israeli troops surrounded the site and exchanged fire with policemen inside. Then soldiers entered the building and searched from room to room, Palestinians said, while forces outside used loudspeakers to demand that all the Palestinians inside surrender with their hands raised.

Security officials said that some policemen gave themselves up.

Soldiers declared a curfew in the city, confining more than 100,000 Palestinians to their homes, residents said.

Also, soldiers arrested 11 Palestinians in the village of Beit Fajjar, near Bethlehem, the military said today.

Israeli forces hold seven West Bank Palestinian towns in a tight grip, following a decision to move into Palestinian areas in retaliation for bomb attacks.

At least 700,000 Palestinians were confined to their homes by army curfews, and Israeli tanks encircled Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s headquarters compound in Ramallah. Only Jericho, isolated in the Jordan Valley, was free of Israeli troops.

Reacting to Mr Bush’s speech, Mr Arafat issued a statement calling it a ‘‘serious effort to push the peace process forward’’.

But other Palestinians were hard-pressed to find anything positive. Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said Mr Bush’s call for a new leadership was ‘‘not acceptable’’. Palestinian cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman said that Bush ‘‘mixed up’’ the concepts of terrorism and resistance to Israeli occupation.

Israelis were pleased with the speech, but joined the Palestinians in expressing doubts about the concept of a provisional Palestinian state, an idea neither side appeared to understand.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s spokesman, Raanan Gissin, welcomed Bush’s call for a new Palestinian leadership ‘‘not compromised by terror’’.

At the Karni crossing between Israel and Gaza early today, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian who was throwing grenades, the military said.

In Gaza yesterday, an Israeli helicopter fired three missiles at a car in Rafah, a town on the border with Egypt, where there are frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces. The car was turned into a smoking, twisted wreck.

The Israeli military said the target was Yasser Rizik, the Rafah commander of the Hamas military wing, who died instantly. Five others were killed, including four Hamas activists, the group said.