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Israel demolishes symbol of Arafat's power

An Israeli army tank passes by a damaged building in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah yesterday. PHOTO: AP

The Israeli army chipped away at the main symbol of Yasser Arafat's power yesterday, using armored bulldozers and other mechanized equipment to turn his presidential compound into a wasteland.

In an insult that did not cause Arafat injury, an Israeli tank shell hit the floor above the Palestinian leader's private offices on Friday night, showering him with dust and shattering windows, to press home a demand he hand over 20 wanted militants.

A Palestinian flag in tatters flew over the gate of the compound that has become Arafat's prison as tanks clanked under his window and army jeeps raced past mounds of rubble.

Flames shot from the roof of one damaged building.

Deepening Arafat's isolation, army bulldozers toppled the bridge linking the two wings of the building housing his private offices.

They also demolished the main staircase leading to the chambers where he and some 200 other Palestinians are holed up.

Aides said Arafat had remained calm after the close shave with the tank shell.

"The room we were in with Arafat shook. The glass broke, rubble and dust from outside filled the room. A stack of papers he had in front of him flew around the room," an official said by telephone from inside the building.

"It was very close. He could have been hurt."

The official said other people in the room and in the corridor outside panicked, fearing the building would collapse.

"Arafat was worried, but I can't say he was shaken. He was very angry when he knew that some security men were hit and heard screams for help and moaning from some who have been injured during the demolition of a nearby building," the official said.

The shell was directed at the side of Arafat's office building to try to force out militants who are wanted by Israel.

Aides said Arafat, 73, spent much of the night telephoning world and Arab diplomats and leaders until dawn, appealing to them to intervene to stop the assault on his headquarters.

They did not say whom he had contacted.

They said he was still receiving faxes and telephone calls, and had been signing documents and doing paperwork.

He has been praying five times a day and sharing with others what little tinned food remains in the presidential complex.

The army started its siege of the fortress-like complex of buildings in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday after two Palestinian suicide bombers killed seven people on a Tel Aviv bus.

Almost all the buildings in the former prison compound built by the British rulers of Palestine in the 1920s have been demolished.

Some of the damage occurred in previous pushes that the Israeli army mounted in the complex after attacks on Israelis in the two-year-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.

The two buildings still standing have gaping holes made by army bulldozers and the long arm of an army mechanical excavator that steadily tore away concrete as if it were paper.

On Friday night, Arafat slept on the floor in his army uniform and white and black checkered keffiyeh -- a headscarf -- next to his men, his Israeli-designed Uzi sub-machine gun beside him, the aides said.

"He is in a defiant mood," one said.

The UN Security Council is expected to meet tomorrow to discuss the latest actions. The meeting was requested by the Palestinians.
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