HIGHLIGHTS: Arafat Showered with Dust as Shelling of his Private Offices Continues||Bulldozers Tear Down Bridge Linking Arafat's Two Wings of His Building, Explosions demolish Main access Staircase and Destroy most other Structures in Compound||Ereqat in Contact with Americans, and Europeans, Abu Mazen with the Israelis, to Stop Attack on Arafat||Israel Says Standoff Will Continue Until all Resistance Activists in Hiding with Arafat Surrender||Curfews Imposed on 6 of 8 Reoccupied Palestinian Cities||Four Palestinians Including a Teen-ager Killed in Gaza & the Home of Relatives of a Late Resistance Activist Demolished in Qalqilya||EU Says Ramallah Assault 'Counter Productive' & UN Security Council to Discuss Grave Situation in the City Monday||Washington Says Israel Has Right to Defend itself against Resistance Bombers But Urges Foes to Exercise Restraint|| STORY: Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said he had received a promise from Israel that its forces would stop their military action against Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's headquarters immediately.

"I have received a promise from the Israeli leadership to stop now the military action around the president's office," the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite television on Saturday showed Sheikh Hamad saying.

"This is what I have heard from them, that they will also not harm President Arafat, and we are making all contacts possible to stop this military action."

Sheikh Hamad did not say which Israeli leaders he had been speaking to. He said he had also spoken to Arafat, who he said told him that the situation around him was very grave.

ISRAELI OCCUPAION ARMY SHELLS ARAFAT'S PRIVATE OFFICES

Israeli occupation forces shelled Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's private offices and demolished other buildings, tightening a siege of his headquarters on Saturday after Resistance bombings in Israel.

A Palestinian photographer holed up with Arafat in his main building, the last still intact in the West Bank complex after a day-long assault, said Arafat was showered with dust when a tank shell hit the floor above him on Friday but that he was unhurt.

The siege in the West Bank city of Ramallah, which followed back-to-back Palestinian bombings which killed seven people and shattered a six-week lull in such attacks, drew censure worldwide and raised fears of a new surge of violence as Washington considers military action against Iraq.

Israel said the goal was not to harm Arafat, whom they blame for attacks on Israelis, but to tighten his isolation and force the handover of wanted Resistance activists believed to be holed up inside.

But Palestinian officials expressed fears for Arafat's safety as army bulldozers tore down the bridge linking the two wings of his building, demolished the main access staircase and destroyed most other structures in the compound.

"I contacted the Americans and Europeans and demanded an immediate cessation of the Israeli assault on Arafat's headquarters," Palestinian cabinet member Saeb Erekat told Reuters. "They told me they are exerting every possible effort."

A senior Palestinian official, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), said he had held asked Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer by telephone to halt the assault so the standoff could be resolved through dialogue.

"The contacts (with Ben-Eliezer) will continue tomorrow," Abbas said. Ben-Eliezer's office was not available for comment.

By midnight GMT, the military vehicles around the compound fell silent. Israel's chief army spokeswoman, Brigadier Ruth Yaron, said the standoff would continue "until every suspected 'terrorist' is in our custody."

CNN showed Palestinians coming out with hands up, and being bound and blindfolded by waiting occupation soldiers. It put the number of detainees at 26. It was not clear whether any of them were on Israel's list of activists wanted for attacks on occupation targets.

CURFEWS IMPOSED ON SIX OF EIGHT REOCCUPIED PALESTINIAN CITIES, FOUR PALESTINIANS KILLED IN GAZA & A LATE ACTIVIST'S HOME DEMOLISHED IN QALQILYA

The occupation army also enforced curfews on six of the eight Palestinian-ruled cities in the West Bank and sent its troops and tanks on a raid into the northern Gaza Strip, in which Palestinian hospital sources said two Palestinians were killed.

Witnesses said two Palestinians were also killed in a clash near Gaza's border with Egypt where militants damaged a tank with an explosive device. Two soldiers were hurt, the army

In Qalqilya, Israeli occupation troops blew up the family home of a Resistance activist who the occupation army said had dispatched a Resistance bomber who killed 22 people in Israel in June 2000. According to Palestinian sources, the activist was killed in a recent clash.

EU SAYS RAMALLAH ASSAULT 'COUNTERPRODUCTIVE' AND UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO DISCUSS GRAVE SITUATION IN RAMALLAH

The European Union said the Ramallah assault was "counter-productive" to efforts to secure Palestinian reforms and security for Israel, sentiments echoed by the United Nations envoy to the region, Terje Roed-Larsen, on Friday.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency session on the Middle East crisis for Monday, at the behest of council member Syria, diplomats said.

US SAYS ISRAEL HAS RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF AGAINST RESISTANCE BOMBERS

In Washington, a White House spokesman said Israel had a right to defend itself against Palestinian suicide (Resistance) bombings.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were high-level contacts between the U.S. and Israeli governments on a senior level throughout the day.

The White House, at the same time, cautioned both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to consider the consequences of violence as a Resistance bombing and Israel's forceful response break a brief period of calm in the Mideast.

"Significant, quiet progress had been made behind the scenes in the Palestinian Authority and there had been a sustained period of quiet without homicide bombings in Israel," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Friday.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, meanwhile, assured Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, who had telephoned him, that the Bush administration was doing all it could to calm the situation.

PHOTO CAPTION

(Top L) Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani(L) is seen with Iraqi minister of Higher Education & Scientific Research Humam Abdul Khaleq Abdul Ghafur, August 26, 2002 during a press conference at Saddam airport in Baghdad. Photo by Faleh Kheiber/Reuters
REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber

(Top R) Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, right, and Tawfik Tirawi, are seen in this Palestinian Authority handout photo, during the mourning of Tirawi's father in the West Bank town of Ramallah in this May 15, 2002 file photo. Israel said that they would only withdraw after the surrender of 20 wanted Palestinian men holed up in Arafat's compound, including West Bank intelligence chief Tirawi. (AP Photo/Palestinian Authority, Hussein Hussein, HO, File)

(Bottom L) The Israeli occupation army blows up a building in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound Sept. 20, 2002. Photo by Ammar Awad/Reuters - Sep 20 1:33 PM ET

(Bottom R) An Israeli medical team moves a man who was injured when a suspected Palestinian Resistance bomber blew himself up on a bus in Tel Aviv September 19, 2002, killing at least five people and wounding about 40 others. ISRAEL OUT, MAGAZINES OUT REUTERS/Nir Kafri
- Sep 19 9:07 AM