Israelis take town in biggest raid yet on West Bank

Israel's armed forces yesterday conducted their largest and deepest raid into Palestinian territory of the 16-month intifada in a fresh effort to weaken Yasser Arafat.

They were in control of Tulkarm last night after dozens of tanks invaded the West Bank town of 50,000 before dawn and soldiers imposed a curfew as they carried out house-to-house searches and made dozens of arrests.

The raid was a further stab at Mr Arafat, who has been confined to his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah for six weeks by Israel.

Yesterday he appeared before the TV cameras in an attempt to counter internal critics who accuse him of having no strategy.

Mr Arafat said Israel and the Palestinians were locked in a "long battle" and compared his position to the 1982 siege of Beirut when Israeli troops under his arch-enemy Ariel Sharon – then defence minister, now the premier – surrounded PLO forces and eventually drove them out of Lebanon.

"I swear to God I will see the Palestinian state, as a martyr or while still alive," said the 72-year-old Palestinian leader. "Please God, give me the honour of becoming a martyr in the fight for Jerusalem."

Israeli forces have seized control of Tulkarm's main authorities, including the offices of the mayor, the police, and the Palestinian Authority. Spokesmen hinted they may soon enter other northern West Bank towns.

Officials described the raid, in which Israeli forces shot dead one Palestinian man and badly injured another, as a short-term "defensive action" following recent guerrilla attacks. By far the bloodiest of these was Thursday's attack by a Palestinian gunman who shot dead six people at a 12-year-old girl's bat mitzvah celebrations in Hadera, northern Israel.

An army statement said the incursion into Tulkarm was directed against the "terrorist infrastructure", not the Palestinian Authority.

Many Palestinians believe the raid is part of a long-term plan by Mr Sharon to unseat or marginalise Mr Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, consolidate control over the occupied territories and bury Palestinian claims to build a nation in the West Bank and Gaza.

Officials say the Hadera killings were deliberately provoked by Israel with the assassination of an al-Aqsa Brigades paramilitary.

The raid coincided with the appearance of reports in Israel which said Mr Arafat was considering resignation. This was dismissed by Palestinian spokesmen as "psychological warfare", and by analysts as highly unlikely.

Meanwhile, the chief Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, Mufti Ikrima Sabri, warned Israel yesterday not to "play with fire" by re-opening the Temple Mount in the Old City to Jews.

The site, referred to by Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, is sacred to both faiths. The compound has been closed to Jews since September 2000, when a high-profile tour by Ariel Sharon, who was the leader of the opposition at the time, triggered the violence of the Palestinian intifada.

Mr Sharon and his Internal Security Minister, Uzi Landau, are expected to take a decision on Jewish visitors to the site within the next few days.