IDF Denies Attempt To Kill Arafat After Shell Lands Near His Bed During Ramallah Raid

June 6, 2002
By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH

The IDF denied allegations Thursday by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat that a tank shell that landed near his bed showed that Israel was trying to kill him.

The shell struck just a meter and a half from his bed during this morning's IDF incursion into Ramallah. It punched a hole in the wall between Arafat's bedroom and the bathroom.

The raid was launched in retaliation for the suicide bombing of a bus at the Megiddo junction in northern Israel on Wednesday, in which 17 young Israelis died.

Palestinians reported two dead and several wounded, and three buildings demolished in fighting at the Ramallah compound known as the mukata.

The IDF suffered no casualties in the predawn incursion Thursday, which lasted several hours before the soldiers withdrew from the West Bank city.

After the pullback, Arafat emerged to speak to reporters. Pointing to his dust-covered bed, broken bedroom mirror and shattered bathroom tiles, Arafat suggested Israel was trying to kill him.

"I was supposed to sleep here last night but I had some work downstairs," he said. "Of course they knew where I was. Everybody knows this is my bedroom."

Capt. Jacob Dallal, an IDF spokesman, said Arafat was not the target of the operation. "If there had been any intention of harming Arafat, it would not have been a problem," Dallal said.

The IDF said it acted in Ramallah amid "a wave of Palestinian terrorism sweeping the state of Israel,'' including the bus attack. It said Arafat's Palestinian Authority is "directly responsible for terrorism that originates in its territory.''

At about 3 a.m. local time, dozens of tanks, elite forces and infantry troops surrounded the PA government complex compund where Arafat's office is located and exchanges of gunfire broke out between soldiers and Palestinian security officials, sources and radio reports said.

A Palestinian intelligence officer was killed when soldiers entered the city and another Palestinian was killed shortly before troops exited the area, sources said.

The IDF blew up several buildings inside the compound including its jail.

Troops blocked the entrance to the building where Arafat's office is located, but he was not harmed.

Meanwhile, IDF troops continued to surround Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank such as Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm, and Kalkilya where it imposed a tight blockade.

At least 10 Palestinian fugitives were arrested in sweeps in Hebron, Anabta, Tulkarm and Bethlehem.

A senior White House official said the United States was neither asked for nor did it grant a "green light'' for the Israeli action in Ramallah, though it did not appear to be helpful in the push for peace.

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