Word: compounding
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...dawn broke and thunder rolled on Good Friday. Yasser Arafat knew they were coming after him. Barricaded in a windowless two-room office, he could only sit and rant as much of the Israeli force entering Ramallah--100 armored personnel carriers, 60 tanks and 2,500 soldiers--encircled his compound, their gun barrels swinging into position for a vengeful assault. Arafat worked the phones, dialing diplomats around the world, beseeching them for help. Sources inside Arafat's office told TIME that Arafat warned of a bloody battle between his forces and the Israeli army, hoping that prospect would prompt...
...right. Israeli government sources told TIME that hours before the assault on Arafat's compound--retaliation for the Passover slaughter by a Hamas suicide bomber of 20 Israelis and a tourist in the seaside city of Netanya--Prime Minister Ariel Sharon informed members of his Cabinet that he wanted to send forces into Ramallah to arrest Arafat and expel him from the Palestinian territories. "We should send Arafat away, out of the country," Sharon said. "We should not let him stay." But the heads of Israel's intelligence and security agencies all argued that releasing Arafat from the four-month...
While the Israelis insisted they did not plan to kill Arafat, they successfully made him think they would. On Saturday, after tanks had leveled much of the compound, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at the remains of Arafat's redoubt. At 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Arafat called one of his Cabinet ministers, Nabil Shaath, in the Jordanian capital of Amman. His voice shaking with fear, Arafat ordered Shaath to call Arab and European leaders. "Tell them the Israelis are going to take over my office," he said. The Israelis said they sought the surrender of several high-ranking Palestinian militants thought...
Meanwhile, the region seemed about to come undone. "If Arafat is killed, all hell will break loose," a senior Arab diplomat told TIME. "You can say goodbye to the peace process for 10 years." Before storming into Arafat's compound, the Israelis blared over a loudspeaker to those inside, "Lay down your arms and come out." Israeli officials told TIME that the Egoz Battalion, a highly trained unit of commandos, led the room-to-room raid through Arafat's compound. Within 24 hours, the Israelis had arrested 150 Palestinians--including fugitives on their wanted list--wounded 40 Arafat bodyguards...
...matter of can't, not won't, and that the Israelis are to blame. Even as the conflict has intensified, Arafat's security forces have arrested dozens of militants wanted by the Israelis. But Palestinian officials, and even some Israelis, say the four-month siege of Arafat's compound immobilized the Palestinian leader, cut him off from his deputies and prevented him from carrying out more arrests. And now that the Israelis have destroyed his command and communications structure, Arafat has lost what little authority he still retained. "This is the test," says Arafat adviser Edward Abington, a former...