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All Palestinian factions unite against Israel, Arafat says Israeli army attacking his HQ with tanks, missiles, Sharon considers him an enemy.
JERUSALEM - GAZA CITY & RAMALLAH, West Bank - A Palestinian man was killed in clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen in Ramallah Friday after Israel tanks and armoured vehicles stormed into the West Bank town, Palestinian security officials said.
The man was identified as Ala Daraghme, 22, who they said was shot dead in clashes in the Al Tireh district in the north of the town, around a mile (1.6 kilometres) from Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters.
A Palestinian knifed to death two Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip early Friday, an Israeli military source said.
They were attacked in the Netzarim settlement in the centre of the Strip, the source said, adding that the killer was a farm labourer who worked in the settlement.
Their death brought to 1,627 the overall death toll for the 18-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
All the various Islamic and nationalist Palestinian factions on Friday decided to "unite to defend the Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," an official of the radical Islamic group Hamas reported after a meeting
Arafat said on Friday that Israel was attacking his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah with "tanks and missiles," in an interview with Qatar's Al-Jazeera television.
Israel is "attacking the headquarters of the Palestinian leadership with tanks and missiles and some of our premises have been destroyed," Arafat told the satellite channel by telephone.
"They (Israelis) want me to become a prisoner or fugitive, or (they want me) dead. But I tell them no, I'll be a martyr, a martyr, a martyr," he said.
"May God grant me martyrdom," Arafat said, vowing that the Palestinian people would "not kneel" to Israel.
His words came just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared that both he and his government now viewed the Palestinian leader as "an enemy who must be isolated".
Speaking at a press conference following an all-night emergency cabinet session, Sharon said Israeli troops were already in Ramallah "in the area of the Mukhatar", the official name for Arafat's residence.
"We've done everything possible to arrive at peace but all we have had until now has been terror, terror and more terror. No sovereign government can accept such events," he said. "We are in a war where the targets are women, children, babies and old people. We know that sometimes in war civilians are killed but in this war, the targets are civilians and we are seeing whole families destroyed," he said.
"This is why we see Arafat as an enemy, so he is going to be isolated."
Israel would take "all the necessary measures to act and destroy the infrastructure of every terror element that exists", he said, adding that the cabinet had approved the immediate call-up of 20,000 reserve soldiers in order to be carry out such measures.
Speaking at the same press conference, Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said, however, that Israel had "no interest in reconquering or re-occupying the Palestinian territories.
It was not the Palestinian people who were "the enemy" but terror, he stressed.
"The only thing that interests us is to fight against the infrastructure of terrorism in the territories. This war has no geographical boundaries or borders," Ben Eliezer added.
"We are calling a large number of people into this action which will be concentrated in Ramallah, which is the capital of terror," he said.
But speaking in the televised interview, Arafat hit back saying Israel was invading Palestinian-ruled areas "in response to the Arab summit, which endorsed the peace initiative of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz" in Beirut Thursday.
"This is the Israeli answer to any attempt to bring peace, because they don't want peace," he said.
"Is occupation not ... terrorism? Is the use of F-16s and the bombing of civilians not ... terrorism?" asked Arafat in response to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's accusations of terrorism against the Palestinians.
Israeli tanks have deployed throughout Ramallah, fully occupying the West Bank town and surrounding Yasser Arafat's headquarters, Palestinian security sources said Friday.
Heavy clashes are taking place at various locations.
An army bulldozer smashed a hole in the wall of Arafat's compound in the north of the town but had not entered, the same sources said.