IDF halts demolition work inside Muqata

By Amos Harel, Amira Hass and Arnon Regular, Ha'aretz Correspondents, Ha'aretz Service and Agencies

The IDF has halted is demolition of buildings inside Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Ararat's Ramallah compound.

The decision to cease the bulldozer work was taken on Sunday afternoon, after senior defense establishment figures met in Jerusalem, and the bulldozers will leave the compound within the next few hours.

Senior security sources told Ha'aretz that the decision was based on several considerations, including the wave of protests that swept the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in which five Palestinians were killed, as well as American intimations that Israel should act to calm the situation. After three days of demolitions, the only building that remains largely untouched is the building in which Arafat is holed up.

The sources added that Israel remains firm in its demand that the wanted terrorists inside the compound surrender to the IDF. While the tight siege of the compound remains in force, the cessation of demolition work is intended to calm the volatile atmosphere that has surrounded Operation Matter of Time.

In the next few hours, the IDF is expected to send trucks carrying food into the besieged compound, after Palestinians handed Israel a request for provisions, which was approved by security officials.

Five Palestinians killed during protests Five Palestinians were killed in the West Bank on Saturday and Sunday during Palestinian demonstrations in support of Arafat.

Protests resumed in several West Bank towns and in the Gaza Strip on Sunday afternoon, a day after four Palestinians were shot dead and some thirty were injured in clashes with the IDF. On Sunday a Palestinian teenager from Nablus was killed by IDF fire.

Israel offers Arafat a one-way ticket out of Ramallah Israel reiterated that it will not hurt Arafat and that it would allow him to go abroad as long as he does not return to the territories.

The IDF renewed Sunday the water supply to the Muqata, after it was cut off earlier in the day. Palestinians said Sunday that the Muqata's air conditioning, electricity and phone lines had also been cut off. The IDF said that it was not aware of a water problem, but said that if it would receive a request to supply food or water, it will do so.

Palestinian sources said that Israel has rejected a U.S. initiative to solve the crisis in the Muqata, Army Radio reported Sunday. The radio said that PA parliament speaker Abu Ala spoke over the weekend with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, and said that the ministers do not intend to solve the crisis. However, he said, Sharon promised that Israel does not intend to harm Arafat.

IDF officials said Sunday that there is no intention to hold negotiations on the release of the 50 wanted Palestinians holed up in the Muqata. "The Bethlehem Church of the Nativity scenario will not repeat itself," the radio quoted the officials as saying.

The IDF also reimposed a curfew Sunday on all West Bank cities except for Bethlehem. A curfew was also imposed on Jericho for the first time since Operation Defensive Shield.

In Ramallah, just a few miles from Arafat's compound, troops fired tear gas Saturday and live bullets to disperse hundreds of men, women and children chanting "long live Arafat, long live Palestine." Two protesters were killed by army fire, hospital officials said. Two more people were killed in the towns of Tul Karm and the Balata refugee camp outside Nablus.

In Tul Karm, gunmen walking in a crowd of about 1,200 people traded fire with Israeli troops Saturday. In the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, about 5,000 people joined the protests, some firing submachine guns into the air and holding up Arafat pictures.

In the West Bank town of Jericho, about 400 protesters marched to a local prison, demanding the release of six men held under U.S. and British supervision as part of a deal that prompted Israel to lift its siege of Arafat's compound in May. The foreign monitors threatened to leave, saying they felt endangered by the mob, according to security officials in Jericho.

The demonstrations began shortly after the IDF presented Arafat's bureau with an ultimatum saying that everyone should come out with their hands up because the army planned to demolish a building adjacent to the PA leader's office.

Israel has demanded the surrender of 19 senior figures among the 50 Palestinians inside the building who are wanted for suspected terror links.

Some Israeli officials have hinted that the goal of the operation is to create enough pressure to force Arafat out of Ramallah without Israel having to explicitly deport him.

Sharon: Siege to last until wanted men in Arafat's office surrender Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed Saturday to maintain the siege of the compound, Israel Radio reported.

Sharon, speaking in response to a request by leading Palestinian parliamentarian Abu Ala for Israel to end the siege, said that the IDF presence would remain in the compound until Israel had custody of suspected Palestinian terrorists.

"We have said we are not going to harm Mr. Arafat personally. We usually stand by our word, unlike Arafat who has yet to meet one of his commitments [to rein in terror]," Sharon aide Ra'anan Gissin said.

"The compound continues to be the nerve center of Palestinian terrorism," Foreign Ministry official Aryeh Mekel said Saturday. "The people who are there continue to disseminate orders and to send terrorists to attack Israeli citizens."

Arafat, a few aides and the men wanted by Israel were pinned to a few rooms in a wing of the main office building - the only structure left standing in the once sprawling complex.

Senior security sources told Ha'aretz that the decision was based on several considerations, including the wave of protests that swept the West Bank and Gaza Strip

This doesn't come even close to passing the smell test. Are we to imply from this that Israel took on this operation with the expectation that the wildly emotional (crazy) Palestinian population would not protest???

I suspect that American pressure stopped this from being brought to a conclusion (good cop, bad cop again). Politicians and military leaders, planning operations which will commence [at least relatively] soon do not want any "wild cards" that might change the conditions of the "set-piece" battle which they have planned.

Thus, their plans are based on the assumption of [at least] relative calm everywhere else in the vicinity prior to launch date.

And when they have a plan, everything else becomes subjugated to it.

Ha'aretz is so far to the left that it distorts things in favor of the Palestinians. The Israelis have not refused to "solve the crisis." They have merely said that they would not be suckered into another agreement like the one that freed all the Palestinian low-lives who took over the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, mistreated the Christians there, and trashed the church.

One has to admire the patience of Israelis. Slowly, slowly they get the world opinion accustomed with the idea that the PA is to be extiguished. Unfortunately with the freaking morons running rampant in the American media they have to proceed slowly, but it costs Jewish lives...

I think a clear message is being sent here.

After three days of demolitions, the only building that remains largely untouched is the building in which Arafat is holed up.

This buiding could be leveled just as easily as the others. With him inside.

If Israel wants Arafat dead, anywhere, at any time, it would be accomplished before I sit down for supper tonight.

In Tul Karm, gunmen walking in a crowd of about 1,200 people traded fire with Israeli troops Saturday.

...and when Israeli troops respond to thse scenarios, and civilians are killed, terorists call upon their "UN type" friends for condemnations.

I can almost here what is going on in their heads:

"We can sacrifice these civilians. They have become martyrs, even if they didn't want to be. It's all for a greater good"

Sounds like a certain group of 'Americans' we're all familiar with.

Exactly. Israelis have their heads screwed on wrong. The best way to strengthen the enemy and prolong a siege is to allow in food, water and medical aid. Why bother with the political and military costs of manintaining a siege if doesn't mean anything. And the order not to harm Arafat is patently ridiculous. Either he's completely guilty - which he is, or he's innocent in which case what Israel did was pointless. Israel would have been off either killing Arafat or arresting him anf putting him on trial than staging this farce of a siege. And it'll be even more of a joke if at the end of it, Israel comes out with nothing to show for it.

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