Israeli Forces Take Positions Near Arafat's Compound
Palestinian officials said that the Israelis had not truly abandoned the siege, put in place after a suicide bomber killed six Israelis in Tel Aviv on Sept. 19. Nabil Aburdeineh, an adviser to Mr. Arafat, said that it remained dangerous for the Palestinian leader and others to leave or enter the compound. "They are deceiving the Americans," he said of the Israelis.

But workers were able to move through the rubble of the compound today, as were Palestinian officials not sought by Israel. Some telephone lines were restored.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was widely described in the Israeli news media as furious with the defense minister over reports that some of the men accused by Israel of planning attacks on Israelis had slipped out of the compound when the Israeli forces pulled back on Sunday. Before bowing to the American demands, Mr. Sharon had described these men as "the biggest terrorists that exist," though Israel never released a list of their names.

The Bush administration had criticized the siege as undermining an internal Palestinian drive for democratic change and interfering with American efforts to build support for a possible war on Iraq. The United Nations Security Council also demanded an end to the siege.

In an interview last week with The Jerusalem Post, Mr. Sharon listed five other conditions, including that the governing Palestinian Authority "needs to arrest all the terrorists from all the organizations, investigate them, and try them." He said that it must also dismantle militant organizations, collect illegal weapons, prevent further violence against Israelis, and put "an absolute end to incitement" against Israel.

But Mr. Aburdeineh said that there would be no end to the conflict, which turned two years old this weekend, without Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the lands it occupied in the 1967 war. "Without ending the occupation nothing will end," he said. "They should come back to the negotiating table without conditions."

Israeli forces retain military control of most of the West Bank, including the parts that by agreement are Palestinian-controlled territory. In operations overnight Monday, the army reported arresting 32 Palestinians on suspicion of ties to attacks on Israelis.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/01/international/01CND-MIDE.html