JERUSALEM (REUTERS) — Israel declared Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority a “terror-supporting entity” on Tuesday, and the army launched incursions into Palestinian-ruled areas in further retaliation for deadly suicide attacks.
The unusually harsh wording of the declaration opened the way for harsh retaliation against the Palestinian leadership itself, Israeli security sources said.
Palestinian security sources said Israeli forces that rolled into the West Bank city of Ramallah after a series of missile strikes on Palestinian targets moved within a few hundred yards of the Palestinian president’s headquarters.
The cabinet also branded the military wing of Arafat’s Fatah faction and his elite Force-17 unit as “terrorist organizations.”
The Israeli army operations followed Monday’s air strikes on Arafat’s helicopter compound in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank city of Jenin in response to weekend suicide attacks that killed 25 people inside Israel.
Israeli forces also thrust into Gaza’s international airport, and armored bulldozers began digging up the runway while Palestinian security forces refused to surrender, Palestinian security sources said. Israel declined comment.
The upsurge of violence threatened to wreck a U.S.-Middle East peace drive intended to help bolster Arab support for Washington’s anti-terror campaign in Afghanistan. It raised fears that the Middle East conflict could spiral out of control.
The Jewish state on Tuesday chose language similar to that used by the United States when it targeted Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers following the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
In a resolution approved after a stormy five-and-a-half-hour session, the cabinet issued a statement saying: “The government finds that the Palestinian Authority is a terror-supporting entity and must be acted against accordingly.
“The cabinet has found that the lethal and cruel terrorist attacks over the last weekend demonstrate the ruthlessness of our enemies and necessitate action on a broader scale than that opted for until today against Palestinian terrorism.”
Israeli troops on the move
Palestinian officials have accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of trying to destroy the Palestinian Authority after 14 months of bloodshed that began when an uprising against Israeli occupation erupted after peace talks stalled.
Addressing the nation shortly after the air strikes, Sharon blamed Arafat for what he said was a war of terrorism and called him the biggest obstacle to peace.
Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat accused Sharon of choosing the “path of darkness” and said, “Sharon tonight has declared war.”
He denied Arafat was to blame for the violence and pointed the finger at Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
Following the air strikes, the White House said Israel had the “right to defend itself” but added that President Bush had not given Sharon a green light for military action.
The suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa marked the bloodiest coordinated attacks inside Israel in years.
The militant Islamic group Hamas took responsibility for the bombings, which opened a bloody new phase in a conflict in which at least 742 Palestinians and 222 Israelis have been killed.
Arafat called for an urgent meeting of the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, the largest Muslim body, following the air strikes, a Qatari official said.
Just hours later, the army thrust into parts of several West Bank cities on Tuesday, and troops moved to within yards of Arafat’s compound in Ramallah where he was working, Palestinian security sources said.
The army said forces had made “minor” incursions into Ramallah and other West Bank areas but declined further comment.
Palestinian security sources said Israeli troops and tanks had moved into Palestinian-ruled parts of the cities of Ramallah and Nablus and taken over a village near Tulkarm.
Palestinian officials said several armored vehicles seized the grounds of the Gaza International Airport, a symbol of Palestinian aspirations for statehood. It had been out of operation since the Palestinian uprising began.
“Bulldozers have started tearing up the runway,” said Major General Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh, Palestinian public security chief. “It is an act of sabotage.”
Air strikes
A helicopter missile strike on Monday wrecked three of Arafat’s helicopters and damaged a hangar in Gaza City. At least 17 people were injured, hospital officials said.
Little more than an hour later, two Israeli warplanes fired missiles at one of Arafat’s West Bank offices and a Palestinian police station in Jenin. There were no reports of casualties.
It was only the second time Israel has unleashed fighter planes against Palestinian targets since the 1967 Middle East war. The last time was in May, when Israel drew international condemnation when it used F-16s to retaliate for a suicide bombing that killed five people.
Sharon sent his forces into action after returning from talks in Washington with Bush, who dispatched envoy Anthony Zinni last week on a new peace mission.
Arafat’s Palestinian Authority has dismissed suggestions he was to blame for the weekend attacks by failing to crack down on violence. More than 200 Israelis were wounded in the bombings.
His security forces say they have arrested more than 100 militants since the bombings. But a senior Israeli official dismissed those claims, saying intelligence showed the detainees “don’t include leaders, just junior operatives, small fish.”
