A Palestinian youth throw stones at an Israeli occupation tank in Jenin

JENIN, West Bank, September 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Israeli army continued its massive incursion into this northern West Bank town for the second consecutive day Friday, September 19, as Yasser Arafat was under renewed pressure after U.S. President George W. Bush delighted Israel by saying he had "failed as a leader".

Fierce armed clashes erupted in the eastern part of town where the Israeli occupation army was carrying out house-to-house searches. There was no immediate report of injuries, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

In the center of town and in its refugee camps, young Palestinians were hurling stones and Molotov cocktails at occupation army tanks and jeeps.

A 12-year-old boy was seriously hurt by Israeli fire in his abdomen and a 38-year-old bystander was moderately injured on his house front porch, Palestinian medics said.

The army kept its makeshift positions in residential buildings it had occupied on Thursday, September 18.

Sources on both sides said troops also dynamited the family house of a bomber on the outskirts of the refugee camp.

Shadi Tubassi's two-story house was blown up after its 11 inhabitants were evacuated.

Tubassi had killed 15 people in a March 2002 attack in a restaurant in Haifa, in northern Israel.

Another activist house was destroyed in Rantis, north of Ramallah, the army said.

The house had belonged to Ihab Abu Salim from the Islamic resistance movement Hamas. He had carried out a deadly attack at a military base near Tel Aviv ten days ago.

Since August 2002, the army has destroyed more than 250 houses of Palestinian activists it claimed were involved in anti-Israeli attacks.

Rights groups criticize the sanction, saying it amounts to collective punishment.

More than 2,000 Palestinian houses Israel claimed were built without the necessary permit or said to represent a "security threat" have also been destroyed by the army since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising in late September 2000, according to the British-based rights group Amnesty International.

Israel Praises Bush's Anti-Arafat Comments

This comes as Arafat faced more pressure after Bush delighted Israel by saying he had "failed as a leader," while Palestinian premier-designate Ahmed Qorei sought to rally broad support for a new cabinet to ensure its viability.

Israel welcomed Bush's declaration Thursday that also called on the Palestinians to dump the veteran 74-year-old Arafat.

Government spokesman Avi Pazner told AFP: "We are particularly satisfied by this declaration because it confirms what we say about Arafat"

Bush urged the Palestinians to cast off Arafat because he had "stalled" Middle East peace efforts, and charged that he had thwarted efforts to end violence.

"Mr. Arafat has failed as a leader," he said at a press conference with Jordanian King Abdullah II at the Camp David retreat outside Washington.

"The people of the Palestinian territory must understand that, if they want peace, they must have leadership that is absolutely 100 percent committed to fighting off terror," he said.

It was the second time this week that Washington stigmatized Arafat.

Giving Israel the go-ahead to continue its aggressions in the Palestinian territories, the U.S. on Tuesday, September 16, killed a U.N. draft resolution condemning Israel for threatening to expel Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

The Israeli threat to "remove" Arafat drew the ire of the international community and especially of Arab states, which are pressing for a U.N. General Assembly debate on their demand that Israel drop its threat.

But Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz reiterated Friday previous allegations against Arafat.

"Yasser Arafat is chief terrorist and has proven he was the main obstacle," to reviving the peace process, Mofaz told public radio.

"As long as he stays as leader of the Palestinians, it will be impossible to advance" towards a peaceful solution, he added.

While vowing to "remove" Arafat, who is holed up in his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israel has not said when or how it will act. Israeli government minister Ehud Olmert sparked anger when he said the Palestinian leader deserved to be killed.

Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat expressed grave concern at the latest developments, saying Israel alone was responsible for the peace process being in tatters.

"It seems that President Bush for the time declared the peace process frozen," Erakat said.

"But the world knows it is Israel that is responsible for the suspension of the peace process with its building of the security wall (along the West Bank) and of settlements, with its continuous killings, its closure and siege" of Palestinian towns, he added.

Meanwhile, prime minister-designate Ahmed Qorei (Abu Ala) was attempting to form a new government and seeking to include as many political factions as possible.

"Abu Ala received the support of (Arafat's party) Fatah and is very encouraged by the talks he held yesterday" at the highest levels of the movement, Fatah MP Mohammed Hurani told AFP.

He said Qorei was due to leave for the Gaza Strip to ask other factions to participate in a soon-to-be-formed cabinet, which will "include 15 ministers from Fatah out of a total of 22 to 24."

Islamic Jihad has already announced it would not participate in "any Palestinian government tied by agreements with Israel."

It is also unlikely that the resistance Islamic group Hamas, against which Israel has declared "all-out war," will join Qorei's cabinet.