Arafat defiant after Israeli raid

RAMALLAH - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat emerged defiant from his West Bank compound yesterday after a battering overnight Israeli raid, saying "no one can defeat the Palestinian people".

"I ask the world to come and see this racism and this fascism and this massive attack on the Palestinian leadership compound," Arafat said after stepping out of his headquarters flashing V-for-victory signs.

"This will not affect the Palestinian people. On the contrary, it would increase the steadfastness of this people," he said.

Israeli troops stormed in after shelling Arafat's offices and blowing up security buildings before pulling out several hours later.

Arafat was not hurt in the raid, which followed a Palestinian car bombing that killed 16 people, 13 of them soldiers, in northern Israel on Wednesday.

As soon as the Israeli soldiers withdrew in tanks and armoured troop transports dozens of Palestinian police and intelligence officers emerged to survey wreckage left by the barrage, shouting defiantly and waving assault rifles.

Israeli troops also withdrew from the West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin after a week-long clampdown in which hundreds of suspected Palestinian militants were detained.

But the car bombing and the Army push into Arafat's premises undercut new international diplomacy aimed at breaking a vicious cycle of Middle East violence and reviving peace talks.

At least 1382 Palestinians and 502 Israelis have died in an uprising against Israeli occupation launched by Palestinian militants after talks envisaging a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip stalled in 2000.

Aides to Arafat said parts of the complex containing the Palestinian President's sleeping quarters were badly damaged by shelling and machinegun fire but he was not harmed.

Palestinian security sources said at least one Palestinian, an intelligence officer, had been killed by the tank shelling and at least six people in the compound were wounded.

Explosions and gunfire shook the headquarters, already pockmarked by bullets and shelling from a five-week Israeli Army siege which ended little over a month ago.

Israeli military sources said the Army surrounded Arafat's compound and exchanged fire with Palestinian security men inside. Israeli soldiers dynamited two security buildings near the compound, touching off fires.

Israeli political sources said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had not intended to reimpose the siege he lifted on May 2 when Arafat turned militants sheltering inside and wanted by Israel over to internationally monitored custody.

They said Sharon sought only to dish out a short blow to show Arafat he could not get away with a "do-nothing" approach to Palestinian suicide bombers.

Sharon has branded Arafat an enemy wedded to "terror" and irrelevant to peacemaking and wants his removal along with wholesale democratic reforms to the Palestinian Authority before Israel will agree to new peace talks.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the overnight assault was "another indication of the comprehensive Israeli war against the Palestinian Authority".



Israel accused the Palestinian Authority of responsibility for Wednesday's bombing. The militant Islamic Jihad said it hit the bus at Megiddo.

A Palestinian security official pledged "fierce" action to stop it and other groups from mounting attacks in Israel.

He said Palestinian police had launched a search for bombers including members of Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Arafat's Fatah faction.

Sharon delayed his departure on a trip to the United States for talks with President George W. Bush until tomorrow to deal with a response to the bombing.

It followed two days of talks between US Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet and Palestinian and Israeli leaders aimed at making Palestinian Authority rule more democratic and transparent to help curb violence and foster a peace dialogue.

But Washington hinted it wanted to engage with alternative Palestinian leaders.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "In the President's eyes, Yasser Arafat has never played a role of someone who can be trusted and who is effective."

- REUTERS

Feature: Middle East

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