Israel Continues Strikes As Arafat Remains Virtually Under House Arrest

26/05/2001| IslamWeb

JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Israel vowed to continue its so-called ''anti-terror'' campaign against the Palestinian Authority and Resistance groups after fresh air strikes on Palestinian targets and despite renewed U.S. backing for besieged Yasser Arafat.
``We will not make any compromise with terrorism. We can't do this. So the cabinet made some very clear decisions and we will carry them out,'' Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in remarks broadcast on Israel Radio on Thursday.
Israel decided on Thursday to cut all ties with Arafat and the Palestinian leadership after a wave of Palestinian attacks, the latest of which killed 10 Israelis in a West Bank ambush.
Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships have attacked more than a dozen Palestinian Authority installations across the West Bank and Gaza Strip since Wednesday's attack, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding dozens of others.
The new cycle of violence threatened to wreck U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni's mission to end nearly 15 months of conflict.
``The situation is getting worse, not better, and we really cannot give up hope. We cannot walk away from this. The stakes are too high,'' Secretary of State Colin Powell told a news conference in Washington as Zinni met Sharon on Thursday.
State Department officials said Zinni would announce ``ideas about the next steps'' in his peace bid on Friday.
Washington wants a resumption of Middle East peacemaking to shore up Arab support for its anti-terror campaign against Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
Zinni would discuss Israel's decision to brand Arafat ''irrelevant'' and would also talk with the Palestinian leader, Powell said. ``Yasser Arafat is the elected head of the Palestinian Authority and reflects the leadership that the Palestinians wish to have...we will continue to work with him.''
Israel’s night's air raids Thursday marked a new round of Israeli reprisals for a bus ambush by Palestinian Resistance men that killed 10 Israelis and wounded 30 in the West Bank on Wednesday.
Israeli forces advanced to within 100 meters (yards) of Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah after Israel, which has long ruled out negotiations under fire, declared the Palestinian leader irrelevant.