A suspected Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in the Israeli port city of Haifa yesterday, killing at least 12 people, as Israel tightened its siege on Yasser Arafat's headquarters.
The blast, the fourth suicide attack since the Jewish Passover holiday began last Wednesday, tore a gaping hole in the roof of a restaurant frequented by both Jews and Arabs soon after Pope John Paul had appealed for peace in his Easter Sunday address.
The Magen David Adom emergency rescue service said 12 people were killed and about two dozen wounded. Government spokesman David Baker said Israel would leave no stone unturned to "stop this campaign of terror against us."
Israeli troops encircling Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah had earlier traded fire with the Palestinian president's guards, ignoring a UN call to end the siege and the Pope's Easter appeal for peace.
"It seems that war has been declared on peace," the Pope said in his Easter Sunday message to the world, calling for an end to the "dramatic spiral of abuse of power and killings that bloody the Holy Land."
The UN Security Council urged Israel on Saturday to pull out of Ramallah and other Palestinian cities. The resolution was supported by Israel's key ally, the US, but President George W. Bush later said he understood Israel's actions.
Arafat, his pistol at his side in a building metres away from the shooting, has said he would rather die than surrender.
Palestinian officials said Israel was trying to storm the building where Arafat was holed up on the third day of the siege, intended to isolate the Palestinian leader and end a wave of suicide attacks. Israel denied trying to enter the building.
Witnesses said at least two people were killed and six of Arafat's guards wounded in the latest fighting in Ramallah, which follows 18 months of tit-for-tat violence since Palestinians rose up against Israeli occupation.
Israeli soldiers conducted house-to-house searches, arresting at least 25 young men who were taken away with their hands tied behind their backs.
Smashed cars were strewn across the city, pavements were chewed up and at least 50 tanks had taken up positions in the center of Ramallah, 15km north of Jerusalem. Troops fired at water tanks and water gushed out.
The army cut off water and electricity to Arafat's compound but said on Saturday it had let Palestinian ambulances deliver food, bottled water and candles.
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