March 11, 2002	Monday	Zilhaj 26, 1422

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Al QUDS, March 10: Wielding a stick and a carrot, Israel destroyed Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Gaza headquarters on Sunday, then said it might lift a siege that has kept him confined to the West Bank.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in a second concession in 48 hours, said Arafat had met Israel’s terms for ending the siege in the town of Ramallah by arresting the suspected killers of far-right cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi last October.

Addressing soldiers fighting Israel’s deadliest conflict for a generation, he said a Palestinian suicide bombing in a Jerusalem cafe that killed 11 Israelis on Saturday meant it was still too soon to pull back the tanks around Arafat’s offices.

“But at the end of the day I believe the conditions will exist in which we can do this,” Sharon said. “I said once they were arrested I would let him leave. Once you achieve your demands you must carry out your commitments.”

Lifting the siege imposed in mid-December after a spate of Palestinian militant attacks would allow Arafat to attend an Arab League summit in Beirut on March 27 and 28 that is due to discuss a Saudi proposal for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.

An Israeli political source said a formal decision to end the restrictions could be taken within days but that Arafat would need to make a separate request to travel to Beirut.

The Jerusalem blast on Saturday evening, just down the street from Sharon’s official residence, came hard on the heels of a Palestinian shooting that killed two people, including a nine-month-old baby, in the Israeli seaside resort of Netanya.

Hours later, Israeli helicopter gunships slammed missile after missile into Arafat’s seaside headquarters in Gaza City, a symbol of the Palestinian leader’s quest for sovereignty.

Five Palestinians and an Israel soldier were killed on Sunday, including two Palestinians that Israeli police sources said had been blown up in their car in the West Bank while apparently on their way to carry out an attack in Jerusalem.

Zinni is due to travel to the region later in the week, before U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrives in Israel as part of a Middle East tour widely expected to focus on Washington’s plans to raise the heat on Iraq in its “war on terror”.—Reuters