Shapiro, a 30-year-old native of Brooklyn, New York, spent the night sitting on the floor in a room in Arafat's three-story office building, which has been surrounded by Israeli forces since Friday, said his Palestinian fiancee, Huweida Arraf.
The volunteer medic entered the compound Friday afternoon with an ambulance to evacuate Arafat guards wounded in exchanges of fire in the Israeli assault. The army's takeover is part of a major military offensive launched in retaliation for attacks on Israeli civilians.
Arraf said Israeli troops then prevented her fiance and another foreigner, Caoimhe Butterly from Dublin, Ireland, from leaving the compound.
The Israeli military said it was unaware of foreigners being in Arafat's headquarters, but said no one was permitted to enter or leave the compound, except in humanitarian cases.
Shapiro, a member of an international solidarity movement with the Palestinians, has been living in the West Bank town of Ramallah for three years, said Arraf.
"He's physically fine, although worried and a little scared," Arraf told The Associated Press by telephone from Ramallah.
Arraf said Shapiro told her that two of the wounded Palestinians in the compound need oxygen, including one who had suffered a mild heart attack. Arraf last spoke to Shapiro early Saturday, and has since lost all contact with him. Earlier, he had called her to tell her about the meal he had shared with Arafat.
"I don't think there's a lot of food. He was like `I just had breakfast with the president,"' Arraf said.
Is this the possible IRA sniper there were talks about few weeks ago?