Ramallah (West Bank), March 31
Israeli troops encircling Mr Yasser Arafat’s headquarters traded fire with his guards today, ignoring a United Nations call to lift their siege and an Easter appeal for peace by the Pope.Palestinian officials said Israel was trying to storm the building where Mr Arafat is holed up on the third day of the siege, intended to isolate the Palestinian President and end a wave of suicide attacks, but Israel denied trying to enter the building.
“It seems that war has been declared on peace,’’ Pope John Paul said in his Easter Sunday message to the world, calling for an end to the “dramatic spiral of abuse of power and killings that blooded the Holy Land’’.
The army said, “It had not entered the actual building where Mr Arafat is, and said troops had returned fire when a Palestinian shot at them from near the Arafat’s office.
Pope John Paul II waves to a packed sunny Saint Peter's Square
on Sunday. The 81-year-old Pontiff, in his Easter message to the world, said it seemed that war had been declared on peace in the Holy Land and appealed for an end to what he called a spiral of abuse of power and killing.
— Reuters photo |
Meanwhile, four Palestinian security men were shot dead today at a social club which had been taken over by Israeli forces in southern Ramallah, Palestinian security officials said.
An Israeli Army spokeswoman confirmed that troops had killed two Palestinians today in a firefight with six gunmen, who she said, had attacked Israeli troops.
Israeli soldiers conducted house-to-house searches, arresting at least 25 young men. Seven policemen were arrested, said a Reuters correspondent on the scene.
Smashed cars are strewn across the city, pavements have been smashed and at least 50 tanks have taken up positions in the centre of Ramallah, about 15 km north of Jerusalem. Troops have fired at water tanks, leaving water gushing out.
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon tonight said Israel was “at war” against terrorism, but its hands were outstretched for peace with Palestinians and others in the region. “Israel is at war, a war against terrorism, a war for our home,” Sharon said in his brief televised address to the nation.
Washington: A media report revealed that Tel Aviv wanted to arrest the Palestinian leader. Hours before the
assault, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon informed members of his Cabinet that he wanted to send forces into Ramallah to arrest Arafat and expel him from Palestinian territories.
NEW DELHI: Mr Hani al-Hasan, Political Adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, arrived here on Sunday with a special message for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee seeking help to get the Israeli siege lifted at his Ramallah headquarters where he has been confined to for several days. Mr Hasan is meeting senior officials of the Ministry of External Affairs as well as the Congress and other oppposition leaders to seek greater Indian role in ending the Isreali
aggression. Agencies
