Israel Blows Up Hebron Headquarters
Israeli forces blew up the fortress-like Palestinian headquarters on Friday, where the army said wanted Palestinians were holed up.
The army took down a quarter of it in one blast, leaving only piles of rubble with a second early Saturday, according to several residents living next to the hilltop compound.
"I saw hills of rubble," said Mohammed Maswadeh, whose windows were blown out by the blast about 120 yards away. "There's nothing called the headquarters anymore."
The Israel army would only say its operations were continuing in Hebron, but Palestinians living in three other homes around the compound all told The Associated Press the building was no longer standing.
The explosion seemed to signal the final step in the 4-day-old standoff in Hebron. Israeli forces set off a large explosion Friday night in an effort to force the surrender of 15 wanted Palestinians believed to be inside.
Smoke and fire could be seen in the night sky coming from a ground-floor corner of the building in the hilltop compound, with flames flaring up the side before quickly dying down and burning out.
Palestinian witnesses close to the compound said on condition of anonymity that the earlier explosion blasted a large chunk out of the first three floors of the four-floor building, knocking away about one-fourth of the building.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli army spokesman's office acknowledged "an activity going on" at the compound, but refused to elaborate. Military officials had confirmed reinforcements were sent to the compound, and a small number of soldiers had been seen walking around the compound and into the main building.
The army had allowed a Palestinian former Cabinet minister to go in to negotiate the peaceful surrender of the 15 people who Israeli military officials have said were believed to be inside, but Talal Sidr said he couldn't find the men.
"I walked into the headquarters. I went into several places," Sidr said. "The situation there is extremely difficult — a lot of damage in many places. I didn't see anyone, but that doesn't mean there is no one inside because there are places that are heavily damaged that I couldn't enter. "
The army said afterward that its soldiers were certain the men were still inside, four days after surrounding the compound as part of a West Bank military offensive that has confined 700,000 Palestinians to their homes while soldiers search for wanted men.
The compound in Hebron, used in the past as a base for British, Jordanian and Israeli forces, today house offices of the Palestinian Authority's local governor and security forces.
Hebron is the seventh West Bank city reoccupied and put under curfew by the army after a series of suicide bombings, after major powers said President Yasser Arafat must make reforms to achieve a Palestinian state.
In a communique issued after a summit in Canada, the Group of Eight industrial nations said Palestinians must adopt democracy. They did not echo President Bush's call this week for Arafat to be replaced.
But Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said that, while some leaders disagreed with elements of the plan, "collectively we were all happy that he has taken this initiative."
The State Department, trying to build on Bush's initiative, said envoys from the Middle East "quartet" -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- would meet in London next week to coordinate policy.
The standoff and continued operations in Hebron led the Israeli army to say it would continue to bar journalists from the city but had lifted restrictions keeping them from Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus, Jenin, Qalqilya and Tulkarm.
Israel declared the cities "closed military zones" after two suicide bombings in Jerusalem last week. The Palestinian Authority later put the leader of the Hamas militant group, which took responsibility for one of the attacks, under house arrest.
But Friday, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the wheelchair-bound founder of the Islamic group, joined around 1,500 Palestinians in an anti-American rally in Gaza, claiming he had left his house "behaving normally and no one stopped me."
Israel charges Palestinian officials with publicly clamping down on militants while actually doing little to restrain them.
At the rally, Yassin said Palestinians would "sacrifice our souls and blood for Jerusalem" and that "whoever defends his land is not a terrorist. America supports terrorism."
Almost 600,000 Palestinians have been confined to their homes under curfew in West Bank cities and many are besieged in surrounding villages by army operations during which soldiers seized at least nine wanted militants in overnight raids.
In its final statement, the G8 reaffirmed its commitment to a Middle East peace based on "two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side within secure and recognized borders.
"We agreed on the urgency of reform of Palestinian institutions and its economy, and of free and fair elections," it said, but did not mention a new Palestinian leadership.
Bush said this week that Arafat must be replaced by a leader "uncompromised by terror," and that U.S. financial aid to Palestinians depended on reforms and rejection of "terrorism."
The Palestinians have said they will hold elections in January, which opinion polls indicate Arafat is likely to win.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Middle East quartet aimed to meet Tuesday to review steps to support and implement Bush's vision for Palestinian reforms, rebuilding and renewed political dialogue.
At least 1,427 Palestinians and 548 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September 2000 after peace talks stalled.