Israel invaded Bethlehem and other West Bank towns yesterday as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon offered Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a "one-way ticket" out of his besieged headquarters.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat immediately dismissed the offer, saying Arafat, who has sworn to "die a martyr" rather than bow to Israel, would never accept exile from his homeland.
"Arafat said there is not a single Palestinian who will accept going into exile under any circumstances," he said.
PHOTO: AFP
He said that Sharon's intention was to kill Arafat, who is holed up in his headquarters in Ramallah, despite Israel's repeated assurances to the contrary.
Israel sent tanks to Ramallah on Friday in what it said was a bid to halt a wave of suicide attacks. Palestinians say the aim of Israel's military campaign is to block their goal of an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In Bethlehem, outgunned Palestinians fought desperately to keep Israeli troops out of Manger Square after tanks and armored vehicles pushed into the biblical town near Jerusalem overnight.
Witnesses said helicopter gunships fired into the square, near the Church of Nativity, after a Palestinian fighter damaged a tank with a grenade.
Nearby, there was a heavy exchange of fire outside the Santa Maria Convent run by the Salesians, a Roman Catholic order. Church officials denied a report by the Rome-based missionary news service Misna that a 65-year-old Italian priest, Jacques Amateis, was killed in the convent. He is well, they said.
Witnesses said an 80-year-old Palestinian man was shot dead outside his house. A woman and her son were critically wounded.
Majdi Benoura, 30, a Palestinian cameraman, was wounded in the neck, colleagues said.
Sharon said he had told world leaders worried about Arafat's plight that they could pluck him from Ramallah by helicopter.
"First of all, I would have to first bring it to the Cabinet -- it should be approved. Second, he could not take anyone with him because there are wanted [people] and murderers around him there," Sharon told reporters at a West Bank army base.
"And the third thing is it has got to be one-way ticket. He would not be able to return," he said in televised footage.
Under pressure from Arab and European leaders to take the lead in defusing the conflict, US President George W. Bush defended his approach and urged Arafat to condemn suicide bombings.
The UN Security Council on Saturday called on Israel to leave Ramallah and other West Bank towns, but the White House appears to back Israel's line that a ceasefire must come first.
Israel has refused to let envoys from the UN, US, Russia and the EU visit Arafat in Ramallah, a spokesman for EU envoy Miguel Moratinos said.
"Yesterday we requested a visit to Ramallah. Mr. Zinni put in a request on behalf of the quartet," the spokesman said, referring to the US envoy Anthony Zinni. "It was rejected."
Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships blitzed the headquarters of a Palestinian security chief, Jibril al-Rajoub, near Ramallah, setting buildings ablaze and causing an unknown number of casualties among the 400 people said to be inside.
Rajoub, who was evacuated earlier, denied there were any militants wanted by Israel sheltering in the compound.
In Ramallah, the head of medical services in the West Bank said three civilians had been killed in the city yesterday.
Moussa Abu Hmaid said an Israeli sniper had shot dead a 56-year-old woman outside Ramallah hospital. Medical workers had found the bodies of two other Palestinians, a handicapped man named Ayoub Musallam, 40, and Mohammed Mahroum, 32.
Troops thrust into the northern city of Tulkarm and nearby villages of Anabta and Kafr al-Labad.
In Tulkarm, soldiers used loudhailers to order terrified residents to stay indoors or be shot. "A curfew is imposed. Any violators will be fired at," they shouted, witnesses said.
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