RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel defied a United Nations Security Council demand
today to end its six-day siege of Yasser Arafat's devastated West Bank headquarters,
and nine Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike against alleged munitions factories
and other targets in Gaza City.
Israel's siege drew criticism from U.S. President George W. Bush, and many Israelis
questioned the wisdom of the military operation amid signs it might have restored some
of the Palestinian president's appeal among his people.
Sporadic pro-Arafat demonstrations persisted today despite curfews in the West Bank
towns Israel seized three months ago in what appears to have been an only partly
successful effort to stop attacks in Israel.
With the United States abstaining, the Security Council demanded early today that
Israel end its operations, "including the destruction of Palestinian civilian and security
infrastructure." The resolution also called on the Palestinian Authority to
ensure ``those responsible for terrorist acts are brought to justice."
In Washington, Bush said: "We've got to end the suffering. I thought the actions the
Israelis took were not helpful in terms of the establishment and development of the
institutions necessary for a Palestinian state to emerge."
Unmoved, Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said that ``no resolution,
and no person, can take from us our exclusive right to defend our homes, our people."
Cabinet Secretary Gideon Saar said the siege would continue until some 200 people
inside the compound give up, asserting many are terrorists who must be put on trial.
Apparently hinting at possible use of force, he added: "I'm not convinced it will end
in them being given up — but it must end with their capture."
Palestinians took heart from the UN resolution, after recent similar efforts were thwarted
by a U.S. veto. Arafat released a statement praising it, and the chief Palestinian negotiator,
Saeb Erekat, said it should be enforced, "because Israel is the champion of nations
undermining Security Council resolutions and not implementing" them.
The standoff continued during the day, and both sides appeared to be digging in.
Telephone lines to the building were cut today, Palestinians said, leaving Arafat
and his aides with only cellular phones to communicate with the outside world.
Israel's army denied any knowledge of the cut lines.
Israeli soldiers, tightly ringing Arafat's building with tanks, didn't allow visitors inside,
but the military eased restrictions for reporters in the rest of Ramallah, letting
them enter and leave town.
Ramallah's Palestinian residents were under curfew for a sixth day, but there were
sporadic demonstrations anyway. Several dozen Palestinians scuffled with Israeli
soldiers at Manara Square in Ramallah, where earlier this week four pro-Arafat demonstrators
were killed in clashes with troops.
Only two weeks ago, Arafat absorbed his worst-ever internal setback when the Palestinian
legislature forced his cabinet to resign, reflecting growing popular discontent with
government mismanagement and the handling of the two years of violence with Israel.
Before Thursday — when Israeli tanks attacked Arafat's compound in response to
two Palestinian suicide bombings that left the bombers and seven other people dead
— Palestinians were openly discussing limiting Arafat's powers.
Now, the mood may have shifted. Masked gunmen opened fire Tuesday at the house
of Nabil Amr, Palestinian security officials said. No one was hurt. Amr is a former
Arafat aide turned critic who is a leading voice calling for a prime minister to take
over some of Arafat's duties.
Earlier Tuesday, dozens of Israeli tanks moved deep into Gaza City, exchanging fire
with Palestinian gunmen and killing nine people, including six civilians.
The Israeli military said its forces blew up 13 weapons workshops and the house
of a Hamas militant who killed five Israeli teenagers in a shooting rampage in a
Jewish settlement in Gaza earlier this year.
Palestinians said it was the largest Israeli operation in Gaza during two years of
fighting, involving about 60 tanks and armoured vehicles.
On both sides there was speculation that the foray was a prelude to a larger operation
against Gaza, a stronghold and centre of the Islamic militant group Hamas, which
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has hinted at.
Though almost all of the suicide bombers who killed more than 200 Israelis in the past
two years have come from the West Bank, Hamas — the largest militant group
— is based in the fenced-in Gaza Strip, and it is believed that operation orders come from there.
A senior Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel was
considering expelling Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin and the
group's main spokesperson, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.