Israeli troops warned aides to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Saturday that they plan to storm his office, a Palestinian cabinet member said.
Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Israeli commander of the force besieging Arafat's office had told Arafat's aides of the decision.
"The commander of the invading force surrounding President Arafat's headquarters gave an ultimatum, by which they will storm into the headquarters to arrest whoever they want and to leave others inside," Abed Rabbo told the Qatar-based al-Jazeera television.
"This step is a plan by (Israeli Prime Minster Ariel) Sharon against President Arafat's life. This is a very grave step," he added.
Israel said Arafat, confined since Friday to a single floor of his three-story office building in his compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, is accompanied by those wanted for the assassination of Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi. He is also accompanied by senior PA figures.
Israeli military sources said that as well as Ze'evi's assassins, present in Arafat's office are Fuad Shubeiki, a PA official linked to the Karin A weapons boat; Commander of National Security forces in the West Bank Haj Isamil Jabber; the head of intelligence in the West Bank, Tawfiq Tirawi; Ramallah governor Abu-Firas Liftawi and Arafat advisor Nabil Abu-Rudeineh.
However, Israel denied it had threatened to storm into Arafat's offices.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Nabil Sha'ath said Saturday that Arafat has effectively been cut off from the outside world. Sha'ath, speaking from the Jordanian capital Amman, said that he had spoken briefly to Arafat Saturday afternoon, and that the Palestinian leader's contact with the outside world had been severed, and to his knowledge even his cell phone was no longer working.
The PA minister added that Arafat had been confined to two rooms along with a small number of aides. Despite these conditions, and the lack of food or drinking water, Sha'ath said, the PA leader was in good spirits.
The bodies of five more Palestinians who had been shot dead were found in an occupied bank building on Saturday, eyewitnesses and paramedics said.
Wayel Kadan, the head of the Red Crescent ambulance service, said the five dead men had been found shot in the head inside the Cairo-Amman Bank. An Israeli army spokesman said the men were killed in close-quarters combat after attacking Israeli troops.
The three-storey building where Arafat is pinned down was without water and power, with phone lines cut and mobile phones running out of battery, officials said.
A top Palestinian official said Arafat was completely out of contact with the outside world, but Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit issued a statement saying he had spoken with Arafat, who urged Israel to heed a UN Security Council resolution calling on it to withdraw.
According to AFP, a member of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, Huweida Aras, said people inside were desperately calling for medical supplies for the wounded and at least one person had suffered a heart attack.
The Israeli army said it had detained 145 Palestinians in Ramallah, but Palestinians said it was rounding up hundreds in sweeping house-to-house searches.
And officials said the headquarters of West Bank security chief Jibril Rajoub, in the village of Beituniya to the southwest of the city, were surrounded by Israeli tanks.
Rajoub said that 15 tanks had surrounded his offices and the troops were threatening to blow up the building if those wanted by Israel were not handed over.
The security chief added that no one on Israel's wanted list remained in the building, only members of his staff. The Israeli army confirmed that its troops had surrounded the building, but refused to comment on the purpose of the operation. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
