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Sharon Says Arafat "No Longer Exists," Breaks Ties with P.A.
With additional reporting by Ayesha Ahmad and Neveen A. Salem
AL-RAM, West Bank, Dec. 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel has banned Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat from leaving the West Bank town of Ramallah after a government decision to cut contacts with him, Israeli Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit said Thursday, news agencies reported.
"Israel will not attack him personally but he will stay where he is," Sheetrit told Israeli military radio.
General Ron Kitrey, chief spokesman for the Israeli army, meanwhile, told the radio the army had occupied three positions around Ramallah.
"We also have no intention to bring down the Palestinian Authority, or to harm Yasser Arafat physically, or even to expel him," Kitrey said.
Arafat was bunkered in Ramallah on Thursday when Israeli tanks deployed around 200 meters (yards) from his offices, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent at the scene said.
Arafat has been stuck there since December 3rd when Israel launched blistering air raids that destroyed his private heliport in the Gaza Strip and knocked out three of his helicopters.
In order to travel, Arafat must ask permission from Israeli occupation authorities who control the skies over the West Bank and Gaza.
A senior Israeli official said Saturday that any request by Arafat to travel outside Ramallah will be examined and that Israel "reserves itself the right to reject it or accept it according to the situation."
Israel's Security Cabinet pronounced Arafat "no longer relevant" and approved a series of military operations against the infrastructure of armed resistance groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after meeting overnight Wednesday, Israel's
Ha'aretz daily newspaper reported.
During the meeting Sharon said, "From our point of view, Arafat no longer exists. Period," the daily added.
Meanwhile, Israel imposed tighter checkpoints and a curfew as it launched its largest air strikes yet by F-16 fighter-bombers overnight after simultaneous operations by Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades and Hamas killed 10 Israelis and wounded 30 more in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Security Cabinet approved a series of military actions in response to the attacks.
According to participants in the meeting, the operations "do not differ qualitatively" from actions that have already been carried out,
Ha'aretz reported.
"These operations will be systematically carried out in the coming days, area by area," an Israeli official, who asked not to be named, said, warning that they would be "much tougher" than in the past.
"They will not only target the Islamists from Hamas [Islamic Resistance Movement], Islamic Jihad, but also those Fatah and Force 17 members implicated in terrorist activity," added the official, referring to Arafat's own movement and his personal guard respectively.
Justice Minister Sheetrit, a close ally of Sharon, said on public radio, "From now on we are going to totally ignore Yasser Arafat, who is no longer a partner for us, and wage war against terrorism as if he did not exist."
"We hope that in Arafat's entourage certain responsible people will understand that they have to take things in hand," he added.
The U.S., despite the presence of its envoy, General Anthony Zinni, in the region to promote the peace process, also continues to bear down on Arafat as the one responsible for stopping the violence.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Wednesday that although the U.S. is looking to Arafat to take concrete steps against Palestinian "terror" groups, he repeated "we've asked both of the parties to consider the repercussions of their actions."
He refused to give a statement on Palestinian deaths by Israeli actions this week, reiterating Arafat's responsibility, and adding the expectation that as Arafat takes action, "we look to the Israelis to respond positively."
The U.S. has not issued any public condemnation of the destruction of Palestinian police buildings, or of the Palestinians killed this week - including four policemen on Sunday, two children on Monday, and four activists Wednesday, among others, despite previous U.S. criticism of Israel's assassination policy.
One State Department official said that in light of the Palestinian activists' targeting of civilians, "it's hard to try to be even-handed" when condemning violence or placing blame.
"I'm not going to blame Palestinian terror on steps that the Israelis take," the official said.
Residents of Ramallah told IslamOnline Thursday that Israeli forces had re-occupied much of the West Bank city, as well as totally recapturing Tulkarem and Jenin. They also said that Israeli tanks had taken up positions inside each of the Palestinian-ruled cities. Israeli troops also informed residents by megaphone that they were being placed under curfew.
IslamOnline called Hanan Ashrawi, spokesperson for the Arab League, as she was attempting to cross an Israeli checkpoint near her office in the West Bank town of al-Ram on Thursday.
Through the loud noise in the background Ashrawi's assistant relayed that they were about to go through the checkpoint and that the situation was tense.
"The situation is very difficult and I don't know if we can continue to speak. It is very noisy and we have no idea what is going to happen as we go through the [Israeli] checkpoint," Rana Maliki, Ashrawi's assistant, shouted into her cell phone as Ashrawi began talking to an Israeli soldier.
After the funerals of the two Palestinians who killed in Israeli attacks, a 17-year-old Palestinian youth, Ahmad al-Misri, was killed by a bullet to the chest from Israeli occupation soldiers during clashes in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis Thursday, Palestinian security officials and medical sources said.
Separately, 26-year-old Ahmad al-Damissi, a member of Arafat's security forces, was killed by Israel tank fire in a dawn Ramallah incursion, Palestinian security sources said.
Israeli F-16 jets dropped at least nine bombs on Gaza City security buildings close to Arafat's offices, including Force 17 bases. In Ramallah, Apache helicopters fired more than 10 rockets, some landing near the Palestinian leader's compound.
Palestinians also said tanks rolled with guns blazing into Ramallah, where troops occupied and destroyed the Palestinian Broadcasting Authority building. Bulldozers then moved in Thursday morning and plowed what remained into the ground.
Palestinian media officials vowed to defy Israel's attempt to "strangle free speech" and continue broadcasting despite the destruction of the main transmitting mast in the West Bank city.
Israeli army sappers then blew up the antenna used to transmit programs across the West Bank.
In a symbolic blow to Arafat's increasingly shaky rule, Israeli troops destroyed a government office in Ramallah during sweeping strikes on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In Nablus, fighter-bombers raided a Palestinian Authority laboratory developing arms and explosives, Israel's army said.
Meanwhile, a top aide to Arafat on Thursday accused the Israeli government of having launched "an official war" on the Palestinian administration and people.
"The Israeli government led by [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon has indeed started launching an official war against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people," said Nabil Abu Rudeina.
"The air strikes, assassinations and destruction carried out by this government against civilian and police targets, as well as private homes with warplanes is an official war declared by Sharon and is aimed at dragging the region into an all-out explosion and more tension," he said.
"We hold Israel fully responsible for the military escalation underway and for the repercussions it will have," said Abu Rudeina. "We also call on the international community, and particularly the United States, to put pressure on Israel to stop its aggression and its war, and to make it respect and implement the agreements" reached between the two sides.
After the night raids, the Israeli army blocked the main road between Gaza City and Khan Yunis further south with huge cement blocks, in order to protect the Netzarim Jewish settlement that lies en route.
Thousands of stranded Gaza residents had to take the long way round to get into the city, walking across a stretch of sandy beach to the city where some shoppers are preparing for the Eid al-Fitr festival this weekend to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in which Muslims fast.
"The humiliation will not end," said Ayman, an employee in a nearby Palestinian ministry who declined to give his surname. "This makes one feel like going on a suicide mission."
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