Steve Quayle News Alerts

September 19, 2002

RAMALLAH, West Bank (CNN) -- Hours after a suicide bomber killed five people in Tel Aviv, Israeli troops in tanks and armored personnel carriers advanced on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound Thursday, Palestinian officials said.

The troops fired machine guns and bulldozed down a wall around the buildings. Arafat has not been harmed.

Israeli troops in a jeep and bulldozer inside the compound were shouting through a bullhorn calling on everybody to come out "with their hands on their heads."

The message, which was repeated numerous times, was heard by nearby CNN Producer Sausan Ghosheh.

Soon after, seven men came out of a building with their hands in the air and went behind the structure. It's not clear if they were taken away by Israeli forces. An Israeli bulldozer with lights mounted on it also moved into the compound amid heavy gunfire.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said Arafat had not been hurt. Erakat said he had been speaking with Arafat by telephone when the firing began.

He said Arafat told him that two of his guards had been wounded and "the situation is continuing."

As the Israeli military carried out the operation, the full Israeli Cabinet met in an emergency session Thursday night. The Cabinet ruled that Israel will isolate Arafat in his compound until further notice, and demanded that about 20 to 25 wanted Palestinians whom Israel believes are holed up in the compound be handed over.

The military action came hours after a terror attack on a Tel Aviv bus that killed five and injured dozens more.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Gideon Meir said the military operation is part of a larger effort across the West Bank to halt the movement of Palestinian terrorists.

"We have to tighten our security around the cities and that is what we are doing," said Meir, referring to the Palestinian cities ringed by Israeli troops.

Israel has occupied Ramallah since late March, and Arafat has not traveled away from his compound since last December.

Arafat spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said Arafat's compound was being shelled by the tanks. Arafat remained in his office, he said.

Palestinian Authority Labor Minister Ghassan Khatib is inside the compound and spoke to CNN by phone, describing the situation as "very tense."

He said the troops were shooting at the buildings and windows in the compound, and he claimed Palestinians were not firing back. "There was only firing from one direction," Khatib said.

"We hear the Israelis announcing in the loudspeakers that nobody is allowed to enter, to leave the compound, or to move between the different buildings on the compound, and anybody who will be seen outside will be shot and dead," Khatib said.

He said Palestinian officials have begun speaking with U.S. officials and Arab officials in an attempt to try to "convince the Israelis that this escalation against the compound of the president is not going to be helpful."

The Israeli military action followed two suicide bombings in Israel in the last two days.

In Thursday's attack, a suicide bomber set off a blast on a crowded city bus in Tel Aviv that killed five people.

"A bus just blew up in front of my eyes," said CNN sound engineer Michael Harris, who was near the scene. He described the blast as "enormous."

Ambulance services said at least 60 people had been wounded. At least five of them were reported to be in serious condition. The bomber was killed, police said.

The Tel Aviv police chief told Israeli television that the bus driver is believed to have tried to block the bomber as he boarded the bus. That, said the police chief, probably lessened the number of casualties.

The Israeli government said that both Hamas and Islamic Jihad had claimed responsibility for the attack.

The explosion went off just after 1 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) on Allenby Street in a crowded shopping district.

Dozens of emergency workers rushed to the scene. Television pictures showed rescuers aiding victims who sat on the shady, tree-lined sidewalks.

Police brought in bomb-sniffing dogs and canvassed the area, looking for other explosives. None were found.

The blast came one day after an Israeli policeman was killed and two other Israelis were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus stop near the town of Umm el-Fahm in northern Israel.

Ra'anan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Palestinian terror groups remained "highly motivated" to carry out attacks in Israel.

Gissin said the Palestinian Authority was taking "no action whatsoever to stop the terror activity." He said Israeli military activity in the Palestinian territories was the only reason there had been "a lull in the successful terrorist attacks" for six weeks prior to Wednesday.

But Erakat said the Palestinian Authority was doing "everything we can" to stop the violence.

He said the Palestinian Authority "condemns any attack on Israeli citizens" and said the only way stop the violence is to "resume a meaningful peace process."

President Bush expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.

"We strongly condemn terror, we strongly condemn violence," Bush said. "And we continue to send our message to the good people in that region that if you are interested in peace and if you want people to grow up in a peaceful world, all should do everything they can to reject and stop violence."

Elsewhere, an 11-year-old boy was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers outside his house Thursday morning in the El-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah, according to Palestinian police and the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

The Israel Defense Forces said it was checking the report.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/09/19/mideast.violence/index.html