Israel Surrounds Arafat Compound in a Predawn Raid
Israeli tanks, armor and troops moved in force into the West Bank city of Ramallah before dawn today, encircling Yasir Arafat's headquarters compound and putting the whole sprawling city under curfew.

The Israeli Army said it was surrounding Mr. Arafat's headquarters so that people it wanted to arrest could not take refuge there, rather than attacking it as it did last Thursday when it wrecked most of the compound with bulldozers and explosive charges. The Thursday raid followed a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed 17 people, including 13 soldiers, when a car laden with explosives blew up next to a civilian bus in northern Israel.

With Apache helicopter gunships overhead, Israeli tanks moved through the streets, warning over loudspeakers that people leaving their homes would be shot. House-to-house searches were under way, and at 6 this morning, the army reported it had arrested nine suspected terrorists.

…Mr. Sharon places the blame for a wave of suicide bombings on Mr. Arafat — even though many have been carried out by rival Islamic groups — and he is expected to tell Mr. Bush that it is time for Mr. Arafat to go.

Nevertheless, the timing of today's strike, coming after a weekend when Mr. Bush held talks at Camp David with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, and before Mr. Sharon had conferred with Mr. Bush, seemed startling. But in the past Mr. Sharon has often taken impetuous actions, notably in his 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which defined the future course of events.

Palestinians inside Mr. Arafat's headquarters said they could hear explosions. Mr. Arafat, they said, was safe and said to be calling world leaders.

Israel Radio reported that the forces entered the Palestinian leader's compound in Ramallah, completing the destruction of three buildings in the compound that were damaged during the Israeli operation last Thursday. The Israeli military denied that.

The latest military action followed a day of relative calm. On Sunday, Mr. Arafat juggled his cabinet, cutting the ministries of his bloated Palestinian Authority by a third.

He appointed a new interior minister — Mr. Arafat had been keeping that top security portfolio for himself — and chose a former World Bank official to oversee the authority's murky finances. But the restructure seemed likely to be greeted with skepticism by Palestinians, suspicion by the Americans and outright rejection by the Israelis.

The Palestinian Authority also acted Sunday in another area where the Americans have been pressing it. Palestinian police arrested a leader of the militant group Islamic Jihad, which took responsibility for a suicide attack last week in which 17 Israelis were killed. The leader, Sheik Abdullah Shami, was arrested in his neighborhood in Gaza City, Islamic Jihad officials said.

Although there were some changes in the Palestinian cabinet, the central core of Mr. Arafat's "Old Guard" cohorts from his last exile in Tunis remained in place, including Yasir Abed Rabbo, the minister of information, and Nabil Shaath, the minister of planning and international cooperation.

In an effort to broaden his domestic base, Mr. Arafat had offered cabinet positions to hard-line groups that reject any relations with Israel, including Hamas, the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. All refused.

The main appointment intended to mollify the international donor community was that of Salem Fayed, a former head of the International Monetary Fund special ministry in Palestine, as finance minister. But it remains to be seen how he will fare working alongside such longtime favorites as Muhammad Rashid, a Kurd who serves as treasurer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/10/international/middleeast/10ISRA.html