War on Arafat widens

Israeli tanks and troops swept into Bethlehem today in the latest military assault against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Witnesses said Israeli armour pushed into the centre of Bethlehem hours after sweeping into the northern West Bank city of Tulkarm in what Israel called a broadening sweep for Palestinian suicide attackers, militants and weaponry.

Israeli tanks ground to a halt a few hundred metres from the Church of the Nativity, traditionally the birthplace of Jesus, and forces also raided Bethlehem's Deheisheh refugee camp.

Palestinians responsible for some recent suicide bombings have come from Deheisheh, including one who killed nine people in Jerusalem last month and one who blew himself up in his car at a Jerusalem police checkpoint yesterday, killing a policeman. Israeli troops were conducting house-to-house searches in the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Qalqilya and Tulkarm, and forces were massing outside Nablus, witnesses said.

The latest military moves marked an expansion of the drive Israel began on Friday when it sent troops and tanks into Ramallah to besiege Yasser Arafat's headquarters in response to a suicide bombing which killed 22 people during a Passover feast last Wednesday.

Jibril al-Rajoub, the Palestinian preventive security chief in the West Bank, said the Israeli army broke into his headquarters in Beitunia, west of Ramallah, early today. Mr Rajoub said tanks entered the compound where 400 Palestinians were sheltering.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment. An Israeli security source had said Israel was seeking to arrest some 50 militants hidden in the HQ, including some who topped Israel's mostwanted list. Israel Radio said the army had cut off

electricity to the HQ and was calling on those inside to surrender, threatening to storm the compound if they did not.

At least 1,132 Palestinians and 399 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian revolt against Israel occupation began in September 2000 after peace negotiations stalled. In Jerusalem, a Palestinian detonated his car bomb yesterday after police halted his vehicle at a checkpoint. A policeman who opened the door to check it was killed.

Israel has made clear it plans to push ahead with a mission to root out militants who are targeting Israel from the West Bank and Gaza Strip territory which were handed to Palestinian self-rule under interim peace deals in the Nineties, despite growing international concern. "We are now in a state of war. We are not going to stop it until we reach our goals and see that terrorism has stopped," Israeli justice minister Meir Sheetrit said.

The Israeli military thrust has been accompanied by escalating violence in the uprising against continued Israeli occupation in much of the West Bank and parts of the Gaza Strip that began after talks on a final peace accord deadlocked.

The army said it had arrested more than 700 people in Ramallah, where Mr Arafat remained at his HQ. "In the next few days, the next few weeks, we will speak to him (Mr Arafat) in the language he knows - not just him but all who support terror. Make no mistake, whoever has a hand in terrorism is going to be caught," Mr Sheetrit said.

Israeli defence forces spokesman Brigadier-General Ron Kitrey said the army planned to do as thorough a job as possible in the time it had. "Every place that we know or suspect there is terror, we will be there," he said.

Britons hurt on peace march