Sunday, 10 March, 2002, 08:31 GMT
It was the first time that Arafat's offices
had been targeted
Israel helicopters and gunboats have totally destroyed the headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza. The operation came early on Sunday morning, hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11 and injured more than 50 at a busy cafe in West Jerusalem.
Two Israelis were killed and 50 injured in another attack in
northern coastal town of Netanya, when two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at
passers-by. The US Government has called on both sides to try and bring an end
of the violence, which a spokesman said underlines the importance of this week's
visit to the region by special envoy Anthony Zinni. 
There was panic in the
Jerusalem cafe after
An Israeli Government spokesman said the attacks were intended to sabotage General Zinni's tour. "What Arafat is looking for tonight is a regional deterioration in order to have the whole region involved in a regional war and Israel will not let him do it," said Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir. For their part, the Palestinians accused Israel of ratcheting up the conflict and trying to wreck General Zinni's visit to the region.
Symbol in ruins the bomb went off
Israeli forces have often attacked Mr Arafat's compound in Gaza, but this is the first time his official reception rooms have been hit. The lavishly furnished three-storey building where Mr Arafat used to host foreign dignitaries has been completely destroyed.
In Netanya two gunmen opened
fire on a main street
It was the main symbol of what was meant to be his embryonic state, built when the Palestinian leader set up administration in Gaza in 1994. The BBC's Caroline Hawley says that Palestinians will see the Israeli attack as a significant escalation. Mr Arafat was not in Gaza at the time; he has been confined to Ramallah for the past three months by Israeli forces. Earlier in the night Israeli helicopters fired on a refugee camp near Ramallah killing one man, and Israeli tanks entered Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Double attack
For the second successive Saturday, Palestinian attacks targeted Israelis at the end of Sabbath, as they returned to the streets to socialise in cafes and bars.
Fouad Hurani, a 20-year-old Palestinian, walked into the Moment Cafe and detonated a nail bomb strapped to his body, killing himself and 11 other people. The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place near Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's official residence
Palestinians took to the
streets after the attacks
"A man walked in and blew himself up. There are pieces of him all over the place," said one eye-witness.
It's the most horrible thing I've ever seen." Earlier on Saturday, two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on passers-by in Netanya, killing two people and wounding at least 35 people. Police killed the gunmen after the 15-minute attack during which they targeted cars and pedestrians in a hotel district.
Both sides accuse the other
of sabotaging Zinni's visit
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Mr Arafat's Fatah movement, said it carried out the attack in revenge for Israeli army action against targets in the West Bank and Gaza.