International

Three held for Israeli Minister's murder

The Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat, inspects the damage in the guesthouse near his office in the West Bank City of Ramallah on Thursday. — Reuters

NABLUS (WEST BANK), Feb. 21. Palestinian police today arrested three men who are suspected of involvement in the assassination of the Israeli Tourism Minister, Rehavam Zeevi, a senior Palestinian official said.

Israel has made the arrest of Zeevi's killers a condition for ending the confinement of the Palestinan President, Yasser Arafat to his West Bank headquarters, where he has been holed up for two months by Israeli tanks. Talal Dweikat, the Palestinian military intelligence chief in the West Bank city of Nablus, told Reuters the three men had been arrested at dawn in a hiding place in the city. They included Hamdi Koran and Basel al-Asmar, who are accused by Israel of direct involvement in Zeevi's killing in a Jerusalem hotel last October. The third man arrested, Ahed Abu Ghulmya, was described as a helper. The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon said in December that Mr. Arafat would remain confined to the West Bank city of Ramallah until Zeevi's killers and those who sent them were arrested and tried or handed over to Israel.

Meanwhile, Israeli Apache helicopters fired two missiles today at a building close to Mr. Arafat's office where he and aides were staying, but they were unharmed, Palestinian officials said. They said the hit building was a few metres from Mr. Arafat's office in his Ramallah headquarters compound.

Witnesses said the missiles struck a one-floor guesthouse near Mr. Arafat's office and sleeping quarters, destroying it completely. One of Mr. Arafat's bodyguards was lightly wounded, they said.

This was the second day in a row Israeli helicopters hit Mr. Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah.

Yesterday, Israel's Government ordered the army to step up the ferocity and variety of strikes against the Palestinians in retaliation for the killing of six soldiers in the West Bank on Tuesday.

Twenty Palestinians have been killed since early yesterday morning in fierce Israeli sea, air and land strikes. Most of the Palestinians killed on Wednesday were security personnel, but at least four were identified as civilians. This raised the toll of Palestinians since they launched protests against Israeli rule in September 2000 to at least 883. The violence also claimed the lives of 273 Israelis. — Reuters

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