OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, March 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced Friday his cabinet now considered Palestinian President Yasser Arafat an "enemy".

"The government has decided to consider Arafat … as an enemy, who at this stage must be isolated," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Sharon as telling reporters Friday, March 28, after an all-night emergency cabinet meeting, and as his forces poured in to the area around the Palestinian President’s Ramallah headquarters.

Sharon's decision to brand Arafat an "enemy" was a "clear declaration of war on the Palestinian people," top Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeina said on CNN television Friday.

"This is a clear declaration of war against the Palestinian people," he said, speaking from Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where Israeli tanks had taken up positions and had started demolishing the compound's wall, said AFP.

"This is a very dangerous decision," Abu Rudeina said, calling on the international community, in particular the United States, to "isolate Sharon and his government."

Meanwhile, some 20 Israeli tanks early Friday took up positions some 200 meters (yards) from Arafat's headquarters in this autonomous city, security sources said, AFP reported.

The tanks rolled into Ramallah from three directions to the north of the West Bank city where Arafat has been confined by the Israelis since December 3.

The sources said the Israelis apparently wanted to block all three entrances to Arafat's headquarters to the north, east and west of the complex.

At least 20 tanks were involved, the sources added, but there could be many more as visibility was poor with thick fog covering Ramallah.

Meanwhile, eight members of the Palestinian security forces were shot and wounded by Israeli occupation troops, two seriously, early Friday in another deadly offensive near Ramallah, AFP reported.

The operation by Israeli special forces, probably including soldiers disguised as Arabs, was taking place in the northwestern suburbs of Ramallah, a security source said without giving further details.

The incursions came hours after Arafat warned that the Israeli army was "preparing to launch a massive retaliation against our towns, our villages and our refugee camps" following Wednesday night's martyr operation in Netanya which killed 22 including the Palestinian martyr.

Arafat said late Thursday, March 28, he was ready to implement a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. He said he had told U.S. special envoy Anthony Zinni he was ready to unconditionally implement a truce.

"I am for an immediate declaration of a ceasefire," Arafat said.

He said the Palestinians were committed to the internationally-backed peace plan drawn up by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, and the Tenet plan, drafted last June by CIA chief George Tenet. Both documents are considered to be roadmaps for ending the 18 months of violence.

But Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior quickly dismissed Arafat's truce offer. The Israeli leadership also poured cold water on a major peace initiative adopted Thursday at the Arab Summit in Beirut.

In another serious development, Israel decided early Friday to call up extra reserve troops for a partial mobilization, an Israeli military source said, AFP reported.

"The government approved that … there will be mobilization of a number of additional combat reserve units," the source said, adding that "this is not the first time in which the [army] has called up additional reserve forces”.

In panic, residents of Palestinian territories evacuated offices, shut down schools and stocked up on essential goods in anticipation of Israeli military action.

The tensions in the occupied Palestinian Territories contrasted with high spirits in Beirut where a two-day Arab Summit wound up by endorsing a Saudi peace initiative that offers Israel normal relations in return for withdrawal from Arab lands Israel occupied in 1967.

While the United States welcomed the Arab peace initiative, Israel claimed a provision for the right of Palestinian refugees to return home was unacceptable as it would allegedly destroy the Jewish state.

Arab leaders adopted the Saudi plan that stipulates a satisfactory resolution of the Palestinian refugee problem. Lebanon, which hosts 350,000 refugees, held out for tighter wording to ensure that it could insist on their return to their homeland.

Britain welcomed Thursday the Arab League initiative for peace with Israel and said lasting stability in the Middle East was possible.

"We welcome the endorsement today by the Arab Summit in Beirut of Crown Prince Abdullah's initiative," the spokesperson for Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a statement carried by AFP.

"We urge Israel to respond positively to the assurances the Arab states have offered on its future security. A comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East is attainable," the statement added.

Though the Saudi Crown Prince’s peace plan guaranteed security for Israel in return for its pullout from territory occupied since 1967, Israel quickly rejected the peace offer, terming it “unacceptable".