RAMALLAH, West Bank — A besieged Yasser Arafat appealed to the world for help Saturday against Israeli forces that have destroyed and occupied most of the compound where the Palestinian Authority president lives and works.
Huddled in hallways and confined to two floors of his headquarters, Arafat and about 100 of his die-hard supporters erected a barricade and stacked desks against windows in anticipation of a final Israeli assault, according to people who visited.
Israel ignored international pleas to reverse its invasion of this West Bank city and instead expanded its punishing military offensive and tightened its siege of Arafat. Israeli forces rounded up hundreds of Palestinian men--including emergency medics and police--in what the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has described as a hunt for terrorists.
Sharon declared Arafat an enemy last week, dispatched scores of tanks into the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and mobilized 20,000 reservists for a "long and complicated war" against the Palestinian chief and the suicide bombers and other extremists who have attacked Israelis.
The offensive followed a suicide bombing Wednesday that killed 23 people--the deadliest such attack in 18 months of violence. Two more suicide attacks have occurred since, including one in Tel Aviv on Saturday that injured 32 people but killed only the bomber.
Tanks that already hold sway in Ramallah moved into position Saturday around the sprawling U.S.-built headquarters of Arafat's West Bank security chief, Col. Jibril Rajoub, and demanded the surrender of key militants thought to be hiding there. Tanks also roared into the town of Beit Jala, next to the biblical city of Bethlehem, where Christians are observing Easter weekend.
One of Arafat's bodyguards and an intelligence officer were killed in sporadic gun battles around the Palestinian leader's compound.
And the bodies of five Palestinian policemen were found in a building seized and then abandoned by Israeli forces. Palestinians said the men were executed in cold blood; the army said their deaths resulted from a firefight.
Arafat, said to be following the news on a small radio, may have taken comfort from the United Nations Security Council's call for Israel to leave Ramallah. The resolution passed 14 to 0 around dawn Saturday, after marathon discussions and, unusually, with U.S. support.
