20 February 2002
Strike on Arafat office follows Israeli checkpoint ambush
Israeli troops block off the area near
Ramallah where six Israelis were killed
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli forces pounded the Gaza offices of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, killing six members of his personal guard, hours after an attack on an Israeli military checkpoint killed six Israelis.Palestinian sources said Arafat was not at the office, but was in his Ramallah compound, where he has been confined in recent weeks due to the Israeli tanks surrounding it. Palestinian sources said Arafat was not at the office, but was in his Ramallah compound, where he has been confined in recent weeks due to the Israeli tanks surrounding it. The Israel Defense Force said their troops encountered a number of armed Palestinians. "An exchange of fire developed on the eastern side of the city, during which, our forces apparently managed to hit some of the armed Palestinians," said a statement posted on the IDF website. The killing of the Force 17 guards came hours after Palestinian gunmen infiltrated a military checkpoint near Ramallah Tuesday and killed six of the Israelis manning it and wounded another
Gunmen fired from a vantage point overlooking the Ein Arik checkpoint northwest of Ramallah, Israeli security sources said. The Israeli army said Israeli forces attacked Arafat's office compound early Wednesday in retaliation for the "latest terror attack and the fact that the Palestinian Authority is not doing anything to deal with these attacks." "The Israeli Navy carried out an operation on the compound of Yasser Arafat's office in Gaza and in the operation, they hit a number of Force 17 activists and they destroyed a coast guard ship of the Palestinian naval police," the Israeli army statement said. Palestinian sources said machine-gun fire and shelling came from the sea toward Arafat's office. They also reported Apache helicopter gunships firing on the office.
The Palestinian sources said that while Israel has launched attacks on the Gaza compound before, this marked the first time Israel had targeted Arafat's actual office. Palestinian sources also said F-16 warplanes hit the police headquarters in Gaza, which is near Arafat's office.
A Palestinian wounded in Israeli rocket attacks
in Gaza receives treatment.
The attack came after a day that saw a new wave of violence spread across the West Bank and Gaza. Ten Palestinians died in the violence Tuesday, according to Palestinian sources: three were killed in suicide bombings or attempts to infiltrate Israeli areas; five were killed in Israeli airstrikes and raids; and two were killed when Palestinians exchanged gunfire with Israeli troops. The Israeli cabinet will meet later Wednesday to discuss its position in the wake of the latest violence. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been under pressure from the Israeli right to take hard-line measures or launch an all-out war against the Palestinians for the continued attacks.
A victim wounded in the Ramallah
shootings arrives at the hospital
Following weekend attacks, Sharon met with defense officials Monday night, but his spokesman said he decided not to change his policies. The Israeli government will not try to kill Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat or overthrow the Palestinian Authority, his spokesman said. In earlier incidents Tuesday, a suicide bomber exploded a device at the entrance to the West Bank settlement of Mehola in the Jordan Valley, Israeli police said. The bomber was killed. There were no other injuries. Witnesses said the Palestinian attempted to board a Jerusalem-to-Tiberias bus that had stopped at the settlement. They said the driver and several passengers threw him off and shut the door. The bomber then set off a belt packed with explosives. Others died in a series of gunfights and Israeli retaliatory strikes in the West Bank and Gaza. The string of incidents Tuesday followed two Palestinian suicide bombings Monday, one on the Kissufim Road, and another on a main road east of Jerusalem where a suicide bomber killed himself and an Israeli policemen when he blew up his car at a roadblock. In a midday air strike Tuesday, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a Hamas office in the Jebalya refugee camp in Gaza, Palestinian sources said. Palestinian sources said two people were killed and a 9-year-old girl was critically wounded. A statement from Israel Defense Forces said the office was struck in response to the latest wave of terror attacks.
In other violent incidents Tuesday:
Palestinian sources said one Palestinian was killed when he tried to infiltrate the Morag Jewish settlement in Gaza. At Khan Yunis three Palestinians died -- among them a mother, Bariam Bahabsa, 40, and her daughter, Mona, 10 -- when a house was hit by an Israel tank shell. Six Palestinians were injured. One Palestinian was shot and killed when the IDF said two Palestinians tried to infiltrate into the Netzer Hazani settlement in the Gaza. The IDF said the two opened fire on Israeli soldiers, who returned fire. Palestinian sources identified the Palestinian killed as Ali Abu Rukba, a member of the radical group Islamic Jihad. In the West Bank, IDF forces operating near the city of Nablus exchanged fire with a group of armed Palestinians. According to the Red Crescent, two Palestinians were killed in the Balata refugee camp, including a 25-year-old woman and a 36-year-old man. The Red Crescent said three Palestinians were injured. And, two Israelis were wounded when gunfire hit their car as they were driving near Tul Karem, the IDF said. They were evacuated to the hospital. Tuesday's violence comes against a backdrop of increased activity by militant Palestinian groups. In addition to Monday's two suicide bombings, Israeli authorities said they had thwarted five Palestinian bombers in the previous 24 hours. On Saturday, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed two Israelis at a shopping center in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Karnei Shomron -- the first such attack on a West Bank settlement.