Arafat Not a Target, Israeli Official Vows

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said in an interview published Friday that he would never sanction an attack on Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat as part of Israel’s targeted killings of suspected militants.

“I will not permit an attack on Arafat, not because he isn’t involved in terror, but because I’m not convinced that this will solve the problem,” Ben-Eliezer told the Maariv daily newspaper. An attack on Arafat, he said, “could come back to us like a boomerang and not do any good.”

In the West Bank, one of Arafat’s lieutenants said the Palestinian leader has steered the 11-month uprising. “I think that President Arafat is not only supporting the uprising but also the leader of it,” Marwan Barghouti, a senior official in Arafat’s Fatah movement, said in an interview broadcast on Israel TV’s Channel 2.

Israel has long charged that Arafat has directed the violence in hopes of extracting concessions from Israel in negotiations. Arafat has denied that he is behind attacks on Israelis by Palestinian militants and has suggested that he is doing everything he can to stop the violence but cannot go against the popular mood.

Meanwhile, Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops exchanged fire in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Friday, and 19 Palestinians were wounded.

The fighting began just after midnight when Israeli tanks and bulldozers drove into the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza Strip and demolished six houses. The army said the buildings were empty but were used by gunmen to fire at Israeli soldiers in a nearby outpost.

Palestinians said the buildings were inhabited. Reporters saw distraught residents trying to retrieve belongings from the rubble.

Israel’s incursion triggered a gun battle in which nine Palestinians were wounded.

Fighting also erupted in Ramallah after a march by 1,200 Palestinians to an Israeli checkpoint. Palestinians threw stones, and Israeli troops responded with rubber bullets and live rounds. Palestinian gunmen then opened fire on soldiers, and a gun battle ensued. Eight Palestinians were wounded.

Gun battles also raged in the divided West Bank city of Hebron. Two Palestinians were hurt.

Despite the fighting, the two sides pressed on with efforts to arrange truce talks, but no time or place was set.