Police expect 250,000 demonstrators here this weekend, and they have deployed 10,000 officers, half of the country's force, to maintain order as the protests spread. Code-named "Blazing Desert," the operation is the biggest security effort in Israel since Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited Jerusalem in 1977. There will be more than 4,000 police in Jerusalem alone.

Benjamin Netanyahu, chairman of the opposition Likud Party, said the demonstrations would remain "within the framework of vigorous protest--without violence but with all the legitimate means available in a democracy."

Although the government and the PLO both denied any plans for Arafat to travel to Jerusalem, Netanyahu declared, "It is obvious that Arafat's arrival in Gaza is the first stage prior to his arrival in Jerusalem, and that is what we are trying to stop, what we are struggling against with all our might."

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, responding to right-wing criticism, said, "I don't know what all this near-hysteria is. (Arafat) was meant to come; he is the head of the Palestinian Authority; he is supposed to be there."

On Thursday, Rabbi Eliahu Bashki-Doron, Israel's chief Sephardic rabbi, asked Arafat to come earlier or later so the thousands of Israeli soldiers and police deployed to ensure his security would not have to violate religious prohibition against working on the Sabbath.

"The first step toward peace is mutual respect . . . of religious feelings," Bashki-Doron said. "This was a sign of understanding of the feelings of the Jewish people and of respect for our keeping of the Sabbath."

Shaath, chief PLO negotiator in the talks that led to Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the Jericho District in the West Bank, said Arafat would cross into the Gaza Strip from Egypt about 2:30 p.m. today (4:30 a.m. PDT) after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.

Maj. Gen. Abdel-Razzak Majaideh of the Palestinian police said in Gaza City that Arafat would be welcomed at a military ceremony at the Rafah border crossing, then travel to Gaza City in a victory procession expected to bring most of the region's 850,000 people into the streets.

In Gaza City, Arafat is expected to speak at a rally outside the government headquarters, which housed Israeli forces only two months ago.