Israel unleashes airstrikes, hitting Arafat's compound

Associated Press WriterRAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- Israel unleashed airstrikes Tuesday in retaliation for Palestinian suicide bombings, and three missiles hit 50 yards from Yasser Arafat's office as the Palestinian leader worked inside. Arafat was not injured, and Israel said he was not the target of the strike.

In the Gaza Strip, a 15-year-old boy and a member of the security forces were killed in an attack by Israeli warplanes on a security installation, doctors said.

The bombs sent hundreds of school children running for cover, and doctors said more than 100 people were injured, many of them youngsters.

The airstrikes came just hours after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Cabinet branded Arafat's government a supporter of terrorism and singled out two organizations affiliated with the Palestinian leader as terror groups -- the Tanzim militia and Force 17, a branch of the Palestinian security forces.

Three Force 17 buildings, two in the Gaza Strip and one in the West Bank, were among eight security installations hit Tuesday by Israeli missiles.

The Cabinet decision prompted ministers from the moderate Labor Party to walk out of the Cabinet meeting in protest, and some Labor leaders hinted that the party might quit the coalition government.

Arafat, speaking to CNN after the airstrike on his compound, accused Israel of trying to undermine his efforts to combat terrorism. The Palestinian Authority has rounded up some 130 members of the militant Islamic Jihad and Hamas groups in response to weekend suicide bombings and shootings on Israelis that killed 26 people. Israel views Arafat's moves against the militants as token efforts.

"They (the Israelis) don't want me to succeed and for this he (Sharon) is escalating his military activities against our people, against our towns, against our cities, against our establishments," Arafat said. "He doesn't want a peace process to start."

Arafat's aides said the Palestinian leader had been rushed into an underground shelter just moments before the missile attacks.

In a sign of support for Israel, the Bush administration froze the assets of three organizations accused of helping finance Hamas, the Palesitnian Islamic group that claimed responsibility for the weekend attacks. The organizations included a U.S.-based charity and two overseas financial groups.

Ranaan Gissin, an aide to Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, welcomed the U.S. action as a way of "cutting off the umbilical cord of terrorist groups."

But a Hamas spokesman in the West Bank town of Nablus, Tasir Imran, denied the groups were funneling Hamas money and called the U.S. move "part of the war against the Palestinian people." The Americans "want to support Israel in its siege and restrictions against our people," Imran said.

Sharon on Monday declared a "war on terror" in response to the weekend's bloodshed, holding Arafat to blame and saying he has "chosen the path of terror." But he has stopped short of placing the Palestinian leader in Israel's gunsights, aiming largely at symbols of Arafat's rule.

The strikes have effectively grounded the Palestinian leader in Ramallah. Israeli missiles damaged Arafat's three helicopters parked near his seaside office in the Gaza Strip on Monday. Israeli troops on Tuesday tore up the landing strip at Gaza's airport.

"We have stated publicly that we do not intend to harm (Arafat) personally," said a Sharon adviser, Danny Ayalon. "But since he is responsible for the wave of terrorism ... we had to hit something close to him personally."

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, a top labor figure, said Arafat "should be given a chance" and urged him to take a stand against militant groups.

"I expect he will become a leader who makes decisions. Right now, he is reluctant and hesitant," Peres told journalists after meeting Secretary of State Colin Powell on the sidelines of an anti-terrorism meeting of European foreign ministers in Romania.

Three Israeli missiles Tuesday hit a security station within a walled government compound in Ramallah, about 50 yards from Arafat's office. The shells knocked down a wall and damaged the roof.

In Gaza City, F-16s fired bombs at the office of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service in a residential neighborhood. Hundreds of children fled a nearby school about 200 yards from the station after the first missile hit.

"Sharon has declared war on us. God help us," said one of the children, Ayman Abdul Jawad, 13, running in the street with friends, blood on his head.

Fleeing children dropped to the ground, screaming, when warplanes swooped down and fired a second bomb. People evacuated buildings in the neighborhood and rescue teams rushed to the area.

Strikes also targeted Palestinian security buildings in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza and in the West Bank towns of Salfit and Tulkarem.

Israel's 2 a.m. Cabinet decision -- declaring Arafat's government a supporter of terrorism -- was meant to step up pressure on Arafat to crack down on militants and prevent attacks on Israel but was not an opening signal for a major assault on the Palestinian Authority, said a Sharon adviser, Raanan Gissin.

"We'll use all the measures at our disposal with greater frequency, with more impunity, to put pressure on Arafat to comply," Gissin said.

Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh of Labor hinted the party -- which favors rehabilitating ties with Arafat -- might quit the coalition, saying that "the unity government is important to us ... but not at every price." A departure by Labor would not in itself topple Sharon's government, but would destabilize it.

Israel's retaliation began Monday afternoon when helicopter gunships destroyed or damaged Arafat's three helicopters parked near his seaside compound in Gaza City. F-16 warplanes also bombed Palestinian security installations in the West Bank town of Jenin.

Early Tuesday, Israeli troops tore up the landing strip of Gaza International Airport, a symbol of fledgling Palestinian sovereignty. The airport had been a vital link between the Palestinians and the rest of the world since it was opened in 1998. It was closed to regular traffic for most of the past 14 months of fighting, but Arafat had been able to use it for his frequent trips abroad.

Israel also sent tanks into parts of Ramallah and the West Bank town of Nablus. In Ramallah, two tanks came within about 800 yards of Arafat's compound.