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BBC; AP; AFP; Reuters. 30 March 2002. Israel widens West Bank assault; Hezbollah, Israel Trade Strikes; Iraqis Protest Against Israeli Attack on Arafat; Pro-Palestinian protests in European cities. GAZA CITY, BEIRUT, BAGHDAD and PARIS -- Israel is intensifying its assault on Palestinian areas in the West Bank after trapping Yasser Arafat inside his shell-blasted Ramallah headquarters. Defying a United Nations resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal, tanks also surrounded the headquarters of Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinian security chief in the West Bank, just outside Ramallah. Israeli incursions were also reported in Hebron and Beit Jala near Bethlehem. In Ramallah, the bodies of five Palestinian policemen were found in a bank after heavy street fighting. Mr Arafat is confined to two rooms in his compound without electricity or water, just metres from Israeli soldiers. Food is running low and a mobile phone is his only link to the world outside. Israeli troops have rounded up hundreds of Palestinians since blasting their way into Mr Arafat's compound with tanks on Friday. Street battles raged as Israeli forces conducted house-to-house searches across the city. Meanwhile, Hezbollah guerrillas fired rockets at Israeli posts in a disputed border region Saturday, prompting Israeli missile strikes in south Lebanon and raising worries of a new front heating up as Israel wages an assault against the Palestinians. Israel evacuated 2,000 visitors from the Mt. Hermon ski resort in the Golan Heights because of the Hezbollah rocket fire, said an Israeli army spokesman, Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz. The Lebanese guerrillas said they attacked six Israeli positions in the Chebaa Farms area, a patch of land claimed by both Israel and Lebanon where the borders of Lebanon and the Israeli-held Golan meet. The Shiite Muslim guerrilla group issued a statement protesting Israel's "escalation against the struggling and aggrieved Palestinian people," warning that Israel's military operations against the Palestinians would bring "very dangerous repercussions." Meanwhile, over 10,000 Iraqis marched in Baghdad on Saturday in a show of support for Palestinian President Yasser Arafat as Israeli troops tightened their siege on his West Bank headquarters. "We call upon our beloved Saddam (Hussein) to attack Tel Aviv... We want Saddam to deliver a speech in al-Quds (Jerusalem)," chanted demonstrators, many of them carrying pictures of the Iraqi president. "The Iraqis are declaring their readiness to volunteer to save the life of brother Yasser Arafat," said senior ruling Baath Party official Abdul-Baqi al-Sadoun. Iraqi newspapers blamed the United States for the Israeli assault on Arafat's presidential compound. "(Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon and his criminal gang would not commit such aggression without American permission," the official al-Iraq newspaper said. "What has happened is part of an American conspiracy which aims at liquidating the Palestinian uprising," the official al- Qadissiya newspaper said. "America is biased in favor of Israel and it is not an honest and sincere partner." Also, thousands of people marched in support of the Palestinian people and their besieged leader Arafat in France, Germany and other European countries Saturday. In central Paris around 1,000 people demonstrated in a protest against the "logic of war" of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. In Lyon, France's second city, police said around 5,500 people took part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration. In the German capital Berlin around 800 people took part in a pro-Palestinian rally. In Strasbourg in eastern France, between 2,000 and 3,000 people from France as well as from nearby Germany and Belgium took part in a protest called by the Party of French Muslims (PMF). Its president, Mohamed Laprecje said: "Our goal is to give our support to the Intifada (the Palestinian uprising), to uplift a people in the face of a colonizing army." Organizers spoke out against some elements in the march who began shouting anti-Jewish slogans, saying their fight was against Israel's policies and not against Jews. In Marseille, in southern France, a city with a large Muslim population, around 1,600 people demonstrated in favour of "respect for the rights of the Palestinian people." They shouted slogans against Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and US President George W. Bush. Easter peace marches in Hanover, Munich, Duesseldorf and Stuttgart, with between 250 and 1,000 protestors in each, also had a strong pro-Palestinian element. In Bordeaux in southwestern France a pro-Palestinian demonstration of around 300 people took place in the city centre. In Athens, Greece, around a dozen members of parliament demonstrated in front of the Israeli Embassy and called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Ramallah. The Israeli ambassador to Greece, David Shasson, refused to meet them. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
