Under heavy weather conditions of rain and cold, tens of thousands of Palestinians roamed the streets of Gaza from the PLC [Palestinian Legislative Council] main headquarters to the Presidential Headquarters in the center of Gaza city, expressing their full support to the Symbol of the Palestinian revolution, the Symbol feeding His nation beneath His umbrella of strength and power of persistence, and continuing to hold on despite the shameful position of the United States supporting Israel's state terrorism and neglecting the just cause of the Palestinians. The US did not even condemn the outlaw Israeli Government that defies all international laws and resolutions and never ceases to embarrass it.
All Palestinian factions and political currents participated in this huge demonstration, indicating that no Palestinian stands aside as a neutral spectator in crucial times. It is impossible not to conclude that the entire wide political array of this nation has the same vision of its national goals and is greatly angered by the siege and restriction of movement imposed on the Symbol, which are considered a deep and direct insult to every single Palestinian, thus increasing Palestinian determination to hold on and maintain defiance.
Yasser Arafat led the Palestinians for over 40 years of serious crisis, survived countless sieges and dangers, yet always stood firm in the center of events and never turned his back. He always was and still is amongst his people in danger and in siege, under occupation and under bombardment. He never retreated for he knew that his people will never retreat. He always led them against the most dangerous conquerors.
Regardless of the hovering Israeli war planes over the occupied Gaza strip, the Palestinian masses roared their way towards the Symbol's main Headquarters, anxious to recharge their strong will and powers of persistence, their faces smiling and determined. Did organized state terror comprehend the full picture? Did Israel's terrorist Government consider that the siege reflects its confusion? Did they think that their deeds might turn the future against them? The future will harm them before harming us, us who believe that we will receive what the Almighty has prepared for us, no less and no more, and accept this.
We will blame no one, we will deal with our problems alone, and we know that we have a legitimate case. Because the Israelis are not right. And they have embroiled themselves and their well-oiled, sophisticated war machine in a difficult situation. Neither their organized state terror, destruction and barbaric murders, nor even deportation and the creation of new refugee camps will decide our fate or threaten our survival.
We shall never give up our resistance that grows every day, this resistance that the Israeli terrorist Government fears most. And, slowly, the Arab and Islamic world will recognize that the US war against terror is based on false foundations, because it is a war against one terror excluding another. And if the reactions did not awaken the US administration's consciousness yet, then the future will bring more surprises, because political vandalism and terror are worse that militant vandalism and terror.
As for you, President Arafat, the Symbol with a strong heart and will, you are aware of the Palestinians' affection towards you, because yesterday's demonstration proves that this brave nation knows how to evaluate and praise their true Symbols and how to protect them by confining them inside their hearts and souls.
Palestinian security sources and witnesses said that Israeli tanks pushed two miles into Rafah, near the Gaza Strip-Egypt border and sealed off roads after bulldozing the runway of the nearby Palestinian airport amid growing international pressure on the Palestinian Authority over a seized arms shipment. A 62-year-old Palestinian man died of a heart attack when the troops fired on his home.
Around the same time, Israeli troops arrested a militant from the radical Islamic group Hamas during a raid on an autonomous Palestinian village in the West Bank, an Israeli military spokesman said. The Palestinian Authority, on the defensive over growing evidence it was involved in an attempt to smuggle 50 tons of arms into the territories, condemned the actions. "The Palestinian Authority is warning this Israeli aggression will make a big explosion... create more violence in the region," said Nabil Abu Rudeina, a senior advisor to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Colonel Khaled Abu al-Ula, head of the liaison committee in the southern Gaza Strip, charged the incursion constituted a "reoccupation of the sector."
An Israeli military spokesman said the troops had only taken up positions on roads "under Israeli security control." He added that Israeli commandos had captured eight Palestinians in the Rafah area who had been wanted for "arms smuggling." Yarden Vatikai, a spokesman for Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, said the operations were meant to "show the Palestinian Authority the price that it must pay for supporting terrorism." Specifically, he referred to the killing of four Israeli soldiers by Hamas gunmen on Wednesday.
The initial reaction to the attack came Thursday, when Israel destroyed dozens of Palestinian homes in Rafah, claiming they had been used as firing platforms on Israeli positions and for smuggling arms. It also came amid mounting pressure on Arafat, with Washington saying Israeli evidence linking his administration to the foiled arms smuggling operation was "compelling."
The Palestinian leader was also under growing domestic pressure, as Islamic Jihad, one of the radical groups that had reportedly agreed to end attacks on Israel, publicly rejected his appeal. "Our position towards resistance has not changed," Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdallah Shallah said from his home in Damascus on Thursday. "This will be proved in the near future." That warning came a day after Hamas smashed three weeks of relative calm with its attack on the Israeli soldiers. For its part, the Damascus-based Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine threatened Israel on Friday with reprisals for the destruction of the houses in Rafah, which the United Nations said had left 500 people homeless.
Washington, meanwhile, focused on evidence allegedly linking Arafat's administration to the weapons on a ship seized by Israeli commandos in the Red Sea last week. US President George W. Bush said he had growing suspicions the arms were meant to "promote terror" and urged Arafat to punish those behind it. The White House also said US envoy Anthony Zinni would continue his "mission to help the parties achieve a ceasefire and to implement" agreements to forge peace in the region. Arafat, who remains blockaded in the West Bank town of Ramallah, has called all the Israeli accusations "lies" and has set up a commission of inquiry. The statements from Washington were welcomed by Israel on Friday. Avi Pazner, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said "we can only welcome the fact that the Americans have recognized the implication of the Palestinian Authority after we supplied detailed explanations of the matter." He added that, based on documents Israel had supplied, Washington could also conclude that Arafat was personally involved, but had not done so "for reasons of its own." The State Department, meanwhile, said there was also "compelling evidence" that Iran and Lebanon's Shiite Muslim fundamentalist movement Hezbollah were involved, as alleged by Israel. Iran has denied any involvement.
Israeli media reported that Sharon threatened to keep Arafat in Ramallah if he does not meet his demands. Arafat has not been permitted to leave Ramallah since a series of suicide attacks in Israel in early December, which were followed by massive Israel reprisals. Sharon said last Thursday: "Arafat will stay confined in Ramallah, even if it takes several years" for him to arrest the militants wanted by Israel. He repeated that the restrictions would only be lifted if Arafat arrests militants wanted for assassinating Tourism Minister Rehav'am Ze'evi last October, who Israel says are hiding in Ramallah. He also wants Arafat to jail Ahmad Saadat, the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), likewise said to be at large in Ramallah. The PFLP claimed Ze'evi's assassination was in revenge for Israel's killing its own leader two months before. Sharon also demanded that Arafat arrest "those responsible for the aquisition" of the arms cargo.
