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Arafat in hiding as Israel launches massive attacks

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thursday, December 13, 2001

RAMALLAH Ñ Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has gone into hiding after an Israeli missile attack damaged his headquarters here earlier today.

Israel's military launched a major offensive meant to destroy the Palestinian Authority security and weapons infrastructure in the wake of a Palestinian attack on a Jewish community in the West Bank. Ten Israelis were killed in the Palestinian ambush on an Israeli bus at the entrance to the Jewish settlement of Emanuel on Wednesday evening.

PA sources said Arafat was evacuated from his Ramallah headquarters on early Thursday and taken to a secret location. The sources said the complex was damaged by an Israeli missile attack, Middle East Newsline reported.

Arafat has prepared an underground bunker in the Ramallah area to survive any Israeli attack, PA sources said. Other bunkers were built for Arafat in the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, the PA's Voice of Palestine ended transmissions and Palestinian sources said the radio and television broadcast station was destroyed by Israeli tank fire. Both radio and television broadcasts later continued via other facilities.

Israeli air and ground forces operated throughout early Thursday in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The targets included the Palestinian weapons industry in the West Bank city of Nablus.

"We also struck the Palestinian Scientific Committee, the code-word for the Palestinian weapons industry," Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, head of the military's operations directorate, said. "There, they produce weapons and bombs."

Israeli troops have also entered several Palestinian areas in the Gaza Strip. The radar facility at the moribund PA airport at Dahaniya was destroyed. The Gaza Strip was divided into three separate cantons controlled by the military.

Israeli AH-64A helicopters and F-16 multi-role fighters struck PA police and naval installations throughout Gaza. Israeli tanks shelled several West Bank cities.

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that Israel would sever all relations with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. But the ministers did not decide to exile or assassinate Arafat.

"We have reached a point where Arafat no longer serves as an address to deal with terrorism," Israeli Justice Minister Meir Shetreet said.

Before his departure, Arafat ordered the closure of the offices of the Islamic opposition in a last-minute move to stave off the toppling of his regime. PA sources said security officers arrived at several Hamas and Jihad offices to prevent them opening.

But Islamic opposition sources dismissed the Arafat decision. The sources said the Hamas and Jihad offices were scheduled to be closed over the weekend for the Id El Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim fast month of Ramadan.

Hours later on Thursday afternoon, PA officials announced that Arafat had rescinded the closure order. The officials said the rescinding of the order was in response to the Israeli military offensive against the PA.

Palestinian sources said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Western leaders telephoned Arafat and appealed to him to crack down on Palestinian insurgents. The sources said PA officials sent messages to both Israel and the United States urging a halt in Israeli bombing to allow Arafat to round up suspected Palestinian insurgents.

In Washington, the Bush administration said Israel has not relayed to the United States any intention to destroy the PA or exile Arafat. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns Ñ on tour of North African Arab states Ñ said the United States would continue to negotiate with Arafat.

"The United States has not seen any indication that Israel is trying to get Yasser Arafat," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

The Israeli offensive came hours after Palestinian insurgents from Hamas as well as Arafat's Fatah movement attacked the Jewish settlement of Emanuel. Ten people were killed and more than 30 were injured when a commuter bus was bombed and riddled with bullets at the entrance of the community.

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