TEL AVIV: Israel’s assault on Yasser Arafat’s presidential compound on Friday fuelled speculation that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has started an endgame to oust his long-time foe.

Sharon said the aim of Israel’s most direct attack on Arafat’s headquarters in 18 months of conflict was to isolate him and remove the “foundations of terror”. His defence minister said Israel had no intention of harming Arafat.

Israel says the decision was prompted by a Palestinian suicide bombing which killed 22 people on Wednesday. But it also followed growing pressure on Sharon from right-wing cabinet members to topple Arafat and a sharp fall in his support in opinion polls.

Some political analysts said the Israeli raid on Arafat’s base in the West Bank city of Ramallah would stop short of bringing down Arafat. But others said Sharon could now be playing out his endgame.

“It could be this. It certainly doesn’t look like just ‘more of the same’. I think there is more to that than what the army is doing this time,” said Mark Heller, an Israeli political analyst.

Other analysts said they doubted Sharon had opted to directly oust Arafat because it could anger the United States, his key ally, as President George W. Bush seeks Arab support for a possible campaign against Iraq in the ‘war on terror’.

But they said Sharon certainly hoped his actions would undermine Arafat to such an extent that he was eventually replaced by the Palestinians.

SHARON REGRETS: Sharon has denied trying to oust Arafat or exile him, although he said in a newspaper interview this week that he regretted telling the United States he would not harm the Palestinian leader.