Tense stand-off as Arafat refuses to budge

Confined to a tiny section of his largely demolished command centre, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has refused to hand over members of his entourage wanted by Israel.

Four Palestinians protesting the siege on Mr Arafat’s headquarters were killed by Israeli army fire, doctors said.

Two people were killed in Ramallah, one in the town of Nablus and one in Tulkarem, where gunmen traded fire with Israeli soldiers, Palestinian hospital officials said.

Israel, preparing for a long stand-off, said it would not withdraw from the compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah before the wanted men surrender.

Yesterday evening, the Israeli army used loudspeakers to tell an estimated 200 people holed up inside the last building still standing at the compound that they must evacuate or it would blow up the building.

A military official said the message was intended to persuade them to leave quickly, with as few mishaps as possible.

Thousands of Palestinians poured into the streets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to protest the Israeli siege.

Around 5,000 people, some firing submachine guns into the air or holding pictures of Mr Arafat, marched in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, witnesses said. Protests also took place in Gaza City and in Nablus and Jenin in the West Bank, where marchers defied an Israeli-imposed curfew.

In Ramallah, which has been placed under full military control, hundreds of protesters, including women and children, shouted “Long live Arafat, long live Palestine” as they attempted to gather in the town centre. They were dispersed after the army fired tear gas and live bullets at them, witnesses said.

No one was injured, hospital officials said. The army declined immediate comment.

Three days into Israel’s assault on Mr Arafat’s once sprawling headquarters - launched in reprisal for a Tel Aviv bus bombing – only the main office building remained standing.

It was surrounded by barbed wire, piles of debris and heaps of smashed cars. Mr Arafat and dozens of aides and security guards were confined to four rooms on the second floor of one wing after a tank shell destroyed the stairs to the third floor. Several more shells hit the building, and one dusted the Palestinian leader with debris.

Mr Arafat spends most of his time in a large conference room, making phone calls and reading fax messages and media reports aides print out from the Internet, said Hani al-Hassan, a senior PLO official trapped inside.

At one point, when informed yesterday that troops had planted an Israeli flag on the office building, Mr Arafat got up to take a look from a window, Mr al-Hassan said.

Those trapped with him said Israeli troops demolished water pipes, the main kitchen and the pantry, but that there was enough water from rooftop tanks and stored food to last a few days.

Yesterday, five explosions rocked the compound, and aides said there was concern the building to which Mr Arafat is confined might collapse.

The US and the European Union have urged Israel to show restraint and have been trying to defuse the crisis.

France demanded yesterday that Israel halt the operation, saying it was unacceptable. The EU’s foreign policy coordinator, Javier Solana, said the raid would not help end terrorism, and would instead undermine efforts to reform the Palestinian Authority and work out a truce.

Palestinian officials said Israel’s demand for the surrender of wanted men, including West Bank intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi, was just a pretext, and that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s real objective is to humiliate Mr Arafat.

“Sharon is implementing his plan of destroying the Palestinian Authority and the peace process, harming President Arafat and resuming the occupation,” said Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat.

Israel TV’s Channel Two cited security officials as saying the hope was that life would become so unbearable for Mr Arafat as a result of the siege that he would choose exile.

The UN Security Council was to meet tomorrow to discuss the siege.