Israel Bombs Gaza; Arafat Cracks Down

Israel bombed this city’s main police headquarters before dawn today, even as Yasser Arafat pressed forward with arrests that have brought him to the brink of warfare with the radical Islamic movement Hamas.

Eyewitnesses said two huge explosions shook people out of their beds, shattered windows hundreds of yards from the scene and injured at least 18 people.

Two buildings in the police compound reportedly were reduced to rubble, ending a two-day pause in attacks that Israel had observed to give Arafat time to round up militants.

The Israeli army said its F-16 warplanes had targeted “Palestinian Authority bodies that support and aid terrorist activity.” Israel Radio reported that the army also raided Palestinian-controlled areas in Gaza and the West Bank, arresting suspected militants. It quoted a senior government source as saying the raids were approved because Arafat had not made enough arrests.

In Gaza, Maj. Gen. Abdel Razek Majaydeh, the Palestinian chief of public security, said the attack “has destroyed our entire effort to restore calm--it will only lead to an escalation of tension.” Palestinian security officials said they had shut down a weapons-making factory in Gaza overnight and confiscated mortar bombs made there.

Throughout the day Thursday, tension was high in Gaza as Hamas and Palestinian security forces continued an uneasy standoff. Riot police and Hamas supporters scuffled outside the home of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader and founder of Hamas.

The Palestinian Authority put Yassin under house arrest Wednesday night. In clashes that erupted as word of the arrest spread, three demonstrators were wounded, and one of them later died of his injuries. Palestinian police said he was shot by Hamas gunmen who battled them outside Yassin’s home. Hamas said he was shot by the police. Thousands were expected to turn out for the funeral today.

Hamas waited to see how far Arafat would go now that Israel and the Bush administration had driven home the point that the militant Islamic organization threatens his survival as much as Israel does. Islamic militants are counting on support from Palestinians who admire their rejection of negotiations with Israel, their willingness to die for their cause, and their social welfare work.

Two Sides Insist That They’ll Avoid Civil War

Supporters of Hamas and of Arafat’s Fatah movement insisted that they would not let the confrontation degenerate into civil war. But both sides say Israel’s demand that Arafat dismantle Hamas and lock up its hard-core activists has created a situation fraught with danger for the Palestinians. Arafat, the Palestinian Authority president, may have no choice but an all-out confrontation with the militants.

Israel launched a military assault on the underpinnings of Arafat’s regime Tuesday after a series of suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa during the weekend, claimed by Hamas, killed more than two dozen people and wounded scores. But it suspended air raids after Arafat phoned Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Wednesday, asking for more time to make arrests.

But early today, warplanes demolished administrative offices and a barracks in the police compound.

In a statement issued Thursday, Hamas said it rejected Yassin’s house arrest and called on Arafat to “rescind this dangerous decision.”

The pressure continued to mount, with U.S. envoy Anthony C. Zinni visiting the West Bank to press home the message to Arafat that he must act decisively to avoid more Israeli attacks.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak sent his foreign minister, Ahmed Maher, to Jerusalem for the first high-level meetings between Egyptian and Israeli officials in months.

“I cannot say we see eye to eye,” Maher said after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Peres separately. “But we agreed on the goal, which is to ensure a Palestinian state living beside an Israeli state in security and cooperation.”

Maher met later with Arafat, and in a news conference Thursday night, Arafat announced that security talks will resume today among Israelis, Palestinians and Americans. Arafat also said his forces had arrested several people on an Israeli list of 36 suspected bombers or their handlers and were working on the rest. Palestinian officials said the detainees included Fatah members, among them militia commander Raed Karmi, whom Israel recently tried--but failed--to kill.

In Washington, the White House said it was skeptical that Arafat was making enough progress.

“The president remains deeply concerned that Palestinian jails . . . are still built with bars in front with revolving doors at the back,” Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said.

In Brussels, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Arafat had taken some “promising” steps but must do more.

Accompanied by CIA security experts, Zinni held a two-hour meeting with Arafat in a Ramallah compound that Israel fired missiles at Tuesday after the Israeli Cabinet declared the Palestinian Authority a “terrorist-supporting entity.” He and European officials continued to emphasize to the Palestinian leader that Hamas is not just attacking Israel, it is also seeking to undermine his regime.

Arafat Set On Quelling Any Revolt, Official Says

A senior Palestinian intelligence official in the West Bank said Arafat is determined to quell any signs of a Hamas revolt and to continue arrests. But he didn’t say how the security forces could complete the crackdown.

Palestinian security officials said that arrests continued overnight Wednesday and on Thursday and that more than 180 people had been detained, 70 of them in Ramallah alone. One official said that militants of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine had been jailed.

Israeli security sources said, however, that only half a dozen of those whom Israel considers to be the most dangerous militants had been arrested.

Hundreds of Palestinian police with batons and riot shields remained deployed on the edges of Yassin’s neighborhood, an impoverished warren of homes that is a Hamas stronghold.

Outside Yassin’s home, hundreds of youths and young boys milled nervously in the dirt street, vowing to fight off the police if they returned.

None of Yassin’s aides agreed to be interviewed, and they said they could not allow visitors in to see the 65-year-old wheelchair-bound Yassin, who is in poor health.

Across town, thousands of Fatah members marched to Arafat’s seaside offices in a noisy show of support.

Officials defended the arrests of militants and the move against Yassin as an effort to impose law and order.

“He who strays from the political program must be punished by us,” said Abdelaziz Shahin, the Palestinian minister of supply and a longtime Fatah official. Yassin should be under house arrest, Shahin said, because “he has a bad tongue. He is not disciplined in his opposition. He does not respect our political program.”

Hamas, with its program of eliminating Israel and building an Islamic Palestinian state, has long posed a threat to Arafat and in 1996, he launched a crackdown.

Hamas has gained popularity during 14 months of clashes that have wrecked the peace process, impoverished Palestinians and convinced many of them that there is no hope of reaching a negotiated settlement with Israel.

The Palestinian Authority is seen as corrupt, weak and inefficient. Arafat is openly criticized by Palestinians for failing to secure political gains during the revolt against Israel’s military presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hamas has built a vast social network that provides education, work and meals to thousands of Palestinians. It has also earned the admiration of many Palestinians for producing dozens of adherents willing to kill themselves in attacks on Israel. Palestinian polls say that together, Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad movement are more popular than Fatah.

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Curtius reported from Gaza City and Wilkinson from Ramallah and Jerusalem. Times staff writer Robin Wright in Brussels contributed to this report.