Additional
reporting by IOL Palestine Correspondent
RAMALLAH,
September 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - With Israeli bulldozers
and tanks on the edge of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's last
redoubt Sunday, September 22, for the third day running, Palestinians
rallied across the West Bank and Gaza to show solidarity with their
leader, as Arab and European leaders demanded that Israel lift its
blockade.
Tanks
remained parked outside Arafat's living quarters which had its water,
electricity and phone lines cut, even as Palestinian protests in support
of the isolated 73-year-old-leader fizzled out after early morning
street battles with Israeli troops that left four people dead, reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insisted the Palestinian leader was
"finished" but aides holed up with him in his office in the
West Bank town retorted that the demonstrations across the occupied
territories were proof of his popular support.
Islamic
resistance group Hamas and an armed offshoot of Arafat's Fatah called
for an intensification of the two-year-old Palestinian Intifada in
support of the beleaguered Arafat, despite a call from the Palestinian
leadership Saturday, September 21, for all factions to halt attacks on
Israelis.
Palestinians
flooded the streets of Ramallah and every other major town in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip pre-dawn Sunday, after the Israeli army threatened a
huge explosion near Arafat's office, urging everyone inside and nearby
residents to evacuate.
Amid
fears their frail leader's life was in danger, ordinary Palestinians
defied army curfews and checkpoints to demonstrate their support.
The
early morning face-offs turned bloody in several spots in the West Bank,
with tensions running higher in Ramallah, where two Palestinians,
including a radio journalist, were shot dead by soldiers, medical
sources said.
Another
was killed in the Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of
Nablus, where at least 2,000 protested, and a fourth Palestinian was
shot dead by Israeli troops in Tulkarem, they added.
The
demonstrations were a boost for Arafat, whom Israel decided to
"isolate" after blaming him for the resumption in anti-Israeli
attacks, but the army stressed that the protests were not spontaneous.
According
to officials besieged in the crumbling building with Arafat, power,
water and phone lines were cut, while a trench was dug around the
three-storey building.
Israel,
however, said the lines were cut by accident and said it was working to
restore them. The army also said it had arranged to deliver food
supplies and other goods to the men bunkered inside.
But
Sharon, while assuring Palestinians Arafat would not be harmed, vowed
Israel would not call off its assault until it hunted down about 20
militants believed to be hidden among between 200 and 250 people trapped
inside the compound.
"I
hope the Palestinians will understand that Arafat is finished, having
led them to disaster," Sharon was quoted by the daily Maariv as
telling Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qorei in a phone call.
Despite
the tanks barrels pointing at his door, Arafat remained defiant.
"Arafat's
morale is very high. He told me we are a people of giants who never
surrender," said Khaled al-Fahum, a former speaker of the
Palestinian parliament, after a telephone conversation with the veteran
leader.
Arafat
continued to reject the Israeli demand for the surrender of the
Palestinians holed up with him and who count among his top lieutenants.
"It
would be like political suicide," former Labor Minister Ghassan
Khatib explained. "So it's not going to happen. Sharon can keep
people under siege as long as he wants."
To
escape a five-week siege of his compound last May, Arafat handed over
six Palestinians wanted by Israel to British and U.S. custody for
imprisonment, but that move cost Arafat popular support for appearing to
bend to Israel's wishes.
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Arafat is the one and only leader for the Palestinian people
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In
a separate incident Sunday, a Palestinian teenager was shot dead by
Israeli troops in the northern West Bank town of Nablus, under army
curfew, medical sources said, bringing the overall death toll for the
two-year-old Intifada to 2,519.
And
an Israeli vehicle near the Jewish settlement of Gilo was fired upon
from the nearby Palestinian village of Beit Jala, but there were no
casualties, Israeli public radio reported.
"This
is the Palestinians' greatest challenge. People rallying, in defiance of
Israeli curfews, to show support with Arafat, is a clear evidence of how
united the Palestinians are behind their leader," Abdul Aziz
Shahin, a Fatah leader told IslamOnline.
For
his part, Ismael Abu Haniyyah, a Hamas leader, who led a big
demonstration, said that 'all Palestinian factions are now united, and
Israel will fail in its attempts to isolate Arafat.
Answering
a question on Hamas reaction should Arafat be hurt by Israel, the Hamas
leader said, "the occupation forces bear full responsibility for
this situation. Israel will pay dearly if Arafat is hurt.
"We
are all determined to go on with our resistance, with the Intifada
entering its third year. We will not be forced to kneel down before any
pressure and we will remain one," he added.
Meanwhile,
Russia and Sweden joined France in demanding an end to the Israeli
army's destruction of the Palestinian leader's headquarters.
Egypt,
for its part, urged the United States, Russia and France to press Israel
to lift its siege after President Hosni Mubarak and other Arab leaders
received dramatic phone calls from Arafat.
Egyptian
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said only the United States could exert on
Israel sufficient pressure to end the siege of Arafat.
"A
firm position from the United States towards Israel is what could push
Israel to end these practices. It is in the interest of the United
States to take such a position," Maher said.
Maher
said the Arab member states of the United Nations were "working
with other countries on a draft resolution to be considered by the
Security Council" to condemn the Israeli offensive, at a meeting
scheduled for Monday, September 23.
Israel's
top Muslim ally, Turkey also condemned the assault in the decimated
compound where Arafat's living quarters was the only building still left
standing Sunday.
"We
are extremely upset. Yasser Arafat is the legitimate representative of
his people and the fact that such an attack has been carried out against
him is extremely regrettable," Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit told
reporters.
However,
there was no fresh reaction from Washington which has kept noticeably
silent about the latest Israeli offensive.
