Arafat Under Assault

Israeli troops fired three tank shells at Yasser Arafat's office building late Friday, his aides said, to try to flush out 20 wanted men holed up inside and cut off the Palestinian leader from his surroundings.

Arafat, whose compound has been raided in the past, found himself caught in Israel's tightest chokehold yet.

However, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thami said he had received a promise from Israel that its forces would stop their military action against Arafat's headquarters immediately.

"I have received a promise from the Israeli leadership to stop now the military action around the president's office," the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite television on Saturday showed Sheikh Hamad saying.

Sheikh Hamad did not say which Israeli leaders he had been speaking to. He said he had also spoken to Arafat, who he said told him that the situation around him was very grave.

More Palestinians came out of Yasser Arafat's compound earlier as Israel tightened its hold on his Ramallah headquarters.

27 more guards, on top of the 20 from earlier, have surrendered to Israeli troops.

They emerged from the Palestinian leader's battered headquarters holding up their shirts -- to show they weren't carrying weapons or explosives.

By late Friday, Arafat was confined to a few second-floor rooms. Troops demolished a walkway between two sections of the building, separating Arafat from most of his guards. Twenty-seven later surrendered, pulling up their shirts to show they carried no explosives.

As CBS News Correspondent David Hawkins reports, Palestinian officials trapped inside say the building is on the verge of collapse.

One tank shell destroyed the stairs to the ground floor below Arafat's quarters, and Israeli snipers took up positions in windows facing the rooms, said an aide, Nabil Abu Rdeneh. Two more shells were fired at another section of the building, he said.

"President Arafat and those with him are danger," Abu Rdeneh said, adding that he believed the building could collapse.

A Palestinian photographer holed up with Arafat in his main building, the last still intact in the West Bank complex after a day-long assault, said Arafat was showered with dust when a tank shell hit the floor above him on Friday but that he was unhurt.

Israel has said it would isolate Arafat in retaliation for Thursday's bombing, but not harm or expel him. The attack was claimed by the Islamic militant Hamas group.

"We have said we are not going to harm Mr. Arafat personally. We usually stand by our word, unlike Arafat who has yet to meet one of his commitments (to rein in militants)," government spokesman Raanan Gissin said.

The European Union said the Ramallah assault was "counter-productive" to efforts to secure Palestinian reforms and security for Israel, sentiments echoed by the United Nations envoy to the region, Terje Roed-Larsen, on Friday.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency session on the Middle East crisis for Monday, at the behest of council member Syria, diplomats said.

Throughout the day, Arafat had spoken to several European officials and Arab leaders, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Jordan's King Abdullah. Arafat asked them to pressure Israel to lift the siege.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were high-level contacts between the U.S. and Israeli governments on a senior level throughout the day.

Washington cautioned Israel to show restraint, while also urging the Palestinians to try to prevent attacks on Israeli civilians. "Israel has the right to defend itself and to deal with security, but Israel also has a need to bear in mind the consequences of action and Israel's stake in development of reforms in the Palestinian institutions," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

The flareup comes at a time when the United States, because of its showdown with Iraq, is particularly in need of Arab good will. Harsh Israeli action against Arafat could ruin that.

The Israeli military said troops had no intention of entering Arafat's building. Officials confirmed the demolition of the walkway, saying troops wanted to cut off escape routes for wanted men. They said tanks shells were fired as a warning, but not at the building, the military said.

Troops also blew up three buildings in Arafat's compound earlier Friday, and started digging a deep trench and running coils of barbed wire around the office.

It appeared the siege would not end quickly.

Israel said troops would only withdraw after the surrender of the 20 wanted men, including West Bank intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi. Arafat's aides said he would not hand anyone from in his entourage to the Israelis.

Enraged by the bus attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reportedly raised the idea of expelling Arafat at an emergency Cabinet meeting Thursday. Defense minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, said the plan — for now — was to isolate, not oust the Palestinian leader.

However, TV reports said the ultimate goal of the current assault is to make Arafat seek exile voluntarily, by confining him to a tiny area and making life in the compound unbearable. Ben-Eliezer, arguing that an outright expulsion is counterproductive and would only boost Arafat's standing, proposed that plan to Sharon in the Cabinet meeting, TV's Channel Two said.

Arafat has said he would never leave the Palestinian lands.

The Israeli strikes were triggered by Thursday's attack, in which a suicide bomber set off nail-studded explosives on a crowded bus, killing five Israelis and a 19-year-old Jewish seminary student from Glasgow, Scotland.

Even before the latest assault, Arafat's sprawling compound was already heavily damaged, a result of previous Israeli raids. During a major military offensive in March and April, Israeli troops confined Arafat to a few rooms for 34 days.

In June, troops reoccupied Ramallah and most other West Bank towns, and Arafat has not ventured from his compound since then, even on days when a military curfew was lifted.

Arafat was in relatively good spirits Friday, those around him said. He was kept awake in the night from Thursday to Friday by the shooting and bulldozers toppling walls, but performed Friday prayers — the highlight of the Muslim week — in his office before taking an afternoon nap. Water and electricity had not been cut, unlike in earlier raids.

Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayad, who said he got a few hours of sleep rolled up in a blanket on the floor, said the mood around Arafat was defiant. "We are confident of our ability to overcome this crisis," he said in a telephone interview.

The Israeli siege began Thursday evening, with tanks and bulldozers driving into the debris-heaped Ramallah compound.

The army has not released a complete list of names of wanted men, but detailed allegations against four, including Tirawi, the intelligence chief, and Mahmoud Damra, head of Force 17, Arafat's elite bodyguard unit, in Ramallah.