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Siege on Arafat ends

Shooting rocks Church of Nativity again

AFP, Ramallah
Yasser Arafat stepped out into freedom yesterday, blasting the Israelis, vowing to rebuild his shattered Palestinian Authority and demanding an end to violence around Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.
He emerged from a 34-day Israeli siege facing some tough choices, with the militant Palestinian group Hamas vowing to launch new antiIsraeli attacks and Israel again threatening to keep him in exile if he travels abroad.
About 100 cheering supporters greeted Arafat as the Palestinian chief, squinting into the sunlight, left his offices after the Israeli blockade was lifted Wednesday night under a US-brokered deal.
Looking haggard but smiling, the keffiyeh-clad Arafat flashed the "V" sign and made his way through the
adoring throng to an armoured car for a 3-1/2 hour tour of devastation wrought by the Israelis in Ramallah.
"It is racism, it is fascism," he told reporters as he visited the local chamber of commerce, a cemetery, a hospital and the destroyed head-
quarters of his security chief just outside the city.
"Is this acceptable to the world?" he asked reporters, vowing to rebuild after the devastation. "Zionism and those who stand behind it will not be able to break these people."
Arafat drew cheers and salutes from Palestinians in the street everywhere he went before returning to his badly scarred compound, where he received a steady stream of local officials and dignitaries.
The 72-year-old Arafat, transformed into an Arab hero by the siege, faces the daunting task of rebuilding his Palestinian Authority shattered by Israel's fierce military offensive on the West Bank.
He is also under heavy US pressure to take concrete steps to rein in the suicide bombings that triggered the Israeli military blitz. But he was vague about his plans.
Arafat, who had been bottled up in the town of Ramallah by the Israelis since December, said he would tour the West Bank to "shake hands with my people who have suffered (from) crimes" of the Israeli army.
He also seized on controversy over the Jenin refugee camp, comparing the nine-day campaign there to the devastating World War II battle of Stalingrad that obliterated the former Soviet city and killed more than 600,000 people.
"Jenin has turned into Jeningrad," Arafat told the CNN.
Peter Hansen, commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency, said meanwhile that the group would need two billion dollars to help Palestinian refugees recover from Israel's offensive, Saudi Arabia's official SPA agency reported.
Arafat was freed after six Palestinian militants wanted by Israel, who were holed up in his headquarters, were hauled off to a prison in Jericho under the supervision of US and British officials.
But despite the breakthrough in the Ramallah siege, there was little sign of an easing in Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon raised the possibility that Arafat might not be allowed to return to the West Bank if he travels abroad.
"We're not going to give any guarantees, because usually in the past when he left, it was always a sign for a wave of terror," Sharon told US television.
At the same time, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, a senior Hamas leader, warned the group would launch new
operations in the coming days or weeks. "The resistance is still strong," he told the BBC radio.
Thirteen Palestinian groups also demanded the release of Popular Movement for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) chief Ahmad Saadat, detained with four of his men and another official as part of the deal to free Arafat.
The National and Islamic Forces coalition warned in a statement of possible "repercussions" if its call went unheeded.
Also fuelling bitterness was the dangerous stand-off between the Israeli army and some 200 Palestinians trapped for a month inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the only major West Bank town still under occupation.
Heavy shooting broke out late Wednesday at the church, which marks the birthplace of Jesus, and parts of the compound caught fire, triggering an exchange of angry accusations from both sides.
A Palestinian source inside the church told AFP by telephone that some sections of the compound had caught fire after the Israelis tried to storm the church.
Israeli government and army officials firmly denied attacking the church and accused the Palestinians themselves of setting off the blazes. "This is not the first time they have done this," said an army spokesman.
A member of the Palestinian security forces inside the compound was shot dead and a civilian wounded during an exchange of fire with Israeli forces yesterday, according to Palestinians inside the church.
The latest violence came as French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, one of Pope John Paul II's closest aides, yesterday met with Israeli
President Moshe Katsav at the start of his bid to breathe new life into the stalled Bethlehem talks.
Church officials said Etchegaray would also see Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Arafat. The prelate also sought permission to visit the area of the church and meet with Palestinian negotiators, Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser said.