ISRAEL/WEST BANK: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER SHARON RECONVENES HIS SECURITY CABINET AFTER TWO SUICIDE BOMBINGS IN TWO DAYS/ ISRAELI TANKS ENTER COMPOUND AROUND PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT ARAFAT'S RAMALLAH HQ

Record ID: 400108

  • Title: ISRAEL/WEST BANK: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER SHARON RECONVENES HIS SECURITY CABINET AFTER TWO SUICIDE BOMBINGS IN TWO DAYS/ ISRAELI TANKS ENTER COMPOUND AROUND PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT ARAFAT'S RAMALLAH HQ
  • Date: 19th September 2002
  • Summary: (W6) JERUSALEM (SEPTEMBER 19, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF MINISTERS ARRIVING IN THEIR CARS FOR THE EMERGENCY MEETING (2 SHOTS) 0.18 2. SV: SECURITY AT THE GATE OF THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE 0.21 3. PAN: MORE CARS ARRIVING 0.27 4. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) NATHAN SHARANSKY, ISRAELI HOUSING MINISTER, SAYING: "I think
  • Embargoed: 4th October 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL AND RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVAE9X2AV3W05C7XT70UNFP2NY3P
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has convened his
    security cabinet in an emergency session to consider what
    action to take following a blast in Tel Aviv which killed at
    least five people.

    Later, Israeli tanks entered the compound around
    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters
    after opening fire with heavy machineguns, a senior
    Palestinian official said.


    Israeli government ministers arrived for the meeting
    on Thursday (September 19) evening, just hours after a
    Palestinian blew himself up on a crowded Israeli bus in the
    heart of Tel Aviv, killing five people and wounding about 50.

    The bus exploded in Allenby Street near cafes and
    restaurants packed during the lunch hour and the main
    synagogue in Israel's commercial hub.

    The attack followed an explosion in northern Israel on
    Wednesday in which a bomber killed himself and an Israeli
    policeman. Jihad, which is dedicated to Israel's destruction,
    claimed responsibility for what was the first suicide bombing
    since August 4.

    The blasts underline Israel's vulnerability to attacks,
    which have resumed despite the army's blockade of cities in
    the West Bank. Israeli forces say they have thwarted on
    average one would-be suicide bomber every two days in recent
    weeks.

    "It's every day continue new and new efforts to make
    another terrorist ", said Israeli housing minister, Nathan
    Sharansky before the cabinet meeting. "We have to continue to
    finish this work without waiting one day and we have to fight
    against terrorists not only in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem, Netanya
    but also on their bases: we have to fight against those who
    are sending them wherever they are".

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for
    Thursday's attack, which defied calls by President Yasser
    Arafat's Palestinian Authority for an end to attacks against
    Israeli civilians in the two-year-old uprising against
    occupation.

    Meanwhile, Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told
    Reuters from the West Bank city of Jericho that Palestinian
    President Yasser Arafat had telephoned him to tell him his
    headquarters were under fire. He said Arafat was unhurt but
    two bodyguards had been slightly hurt.

    Erekat later said that the tanks were inside Arafat's
    compound.

    Senior Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Gideon Meir said
    that the assault on the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's
    compound late Thursday was intended to capture nineteen or
    twenty Palestinians wanted by Israel for militant activities
    against Israel.

    Israeli tanks and armoured personnel carriers besieged
    Arafat's battered compound in what Israel said was an attempt
    to force the surrender of wanted militants holed up inside.

    "Around him are about nineteen or twenty suspected, or
    I'll put it like this, people who are on the wanted list of
    Israel people, who are heavily involved in major terrorist
    attacks in Israel" Meir told Reuters.

    The latest incursion into West Bank cities was launched
    hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated his
    explosives on a bus in the Israeli coastal city of Tel-Aviv
    killing five people and wounding dozens.

    The Israeli, holding an emergency cabinet session on
    Thursday night, decided to "isolate Arafat and demand the
    extradition of the wanted Palestinians", an Israeli security
    source said.



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