Word: gaza
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...three Soviet-made Mi8s that were parked at Arafat's compound in the Gaza Strip are in pieces now, destroyed by Israeli missiles in retaliation for a shocking new round of suicide bombings that killed 25 Israelis in the two days before. The Israelis also shot up various facilities of Arafat's Palestinian Authority, deployed troops and armor within striking distance of the office in the West Bank city of Ramallah where Arafat was working, and later bombed the same bureau. It was a bit like the magician's trick of tossing knives so that they just miss the target...
When Israel struck back with helicopter gunships and warplanes, killing 23 Palestinians over the course of the week, Arafat fled his Ramallah office and hid at another, undisclosed location. The loss of his choppers left him pinned down in Ramallah, unable to move to his main Gaza headquarters or anywhere else. Still, the Israeli army made clear it was only playing around, so far. "Pyrotechnics," a senior army officer called the attack on the helicopters. "It's a show for the television and public opinion...
...Palestinians, preventing free movement between Palestinian cities and access to jobs in Israel, create a climate in which it is politically dicey for Arafat to do Israel's bidding. Last week Palestinians spat on Arafat's policemen when they came to arrest Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists. In Gaza's Zeitoun neighborhood, police put Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin under house arrest and then had to deal with two days of riots. One young Hamas supporter died from a wound sustained in a clash with Palestinian police. Says Saeb Erakat, Arafat's chief peace negotiator: "Sharon is tying Arafat...
...think it would be easy to put a frail, 65-year-old quadriplegic under house arrest. But it's never been harder to quell the activists of Hamas. When armed police from Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority moved in to surround the Gaza City home of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of the movement whose name means zeal, calls rang from the loudspeakers of local mosques, "Go and rescue Sheik Yassin!" The security men were greeted with a hail of stones and occasional gunfire from several thousand defiant Hamas loyalists determined to show Arafat, just like Israel...
...security officials, Hamas has acquired a potent new conventional weapon. Some months ago, according to these sources, Iranian-backed operatives of the Lebanese militant group Hizballah bought or stole a North Korean-designed rocket from Syrian soldiers and passed it on to Hamas. The weapon was smuggled into the Gaza Strip, where a special Hamas engineering unit was set up to replicate it. At the end of October, Hamas launched the first of its Qassam 1 rockets toward an Israeli town. The attack was a dud; the rocket landed in an empty field. But with a range of 3 miles...