OCCUPIED AL QUDS, March 29: Streets in Israeli-occupied Al Quds were mainly deserted on Friday, as Israelis heeded warnings of further Palestinian attacks and stayed away from public places usually bustling with life before the Jewish Sabbath.

“Is there anyone who isn’t afraid today?” asked one soldier in the city’s bus station, where most travellers were soldiers heeding orders to cut short their Passover holiday vacation and return to their bases as tensions mounted.

Passers-by expressed either despair over the lack of solutions, or determination that the only way to solve the deteriorating security situation was to deal a fatal blow to President Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority.

“We should eliminate Arafat and take over the territories,” said Moshika Sabagi, referring to land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip captured by Israel in 1967, some of which was later handed over to Palestinian rule under interim peace accords.

Sabagi was injured in a recent attack in Jerusalem in which four of his friends died.

He spoke after Israeli tanks and troops battered their way into Arafat’s compound in Ramallah.

While some Israelis spoke of the need for tougher military steps, others had no answer after months of bloodshed that has shattered national morale and pushed public consensus increasingly towards the political right.

“A cloud of paralysing gloom and fear hovers upon us. National morale is at a low, the economy is wavering on the verge of collapse and the streets and places of entertainment are deserted,” Amnon Dankner wrote in the daily Maariv newspaper.

Jessica Salas, who immigrated to Israel from Chile three years ago, said: “Nothing works. When we go into the (occupied) territories, attacks on us continue. When we leave, they also continue. I don’t know what we can do”.

Without answers or hope, some Israelis talk of leaving the country.

Guy Degitar, an immigrant from Russia, waited for a bus with his army-issued gun loaded with bullets ready to shoot at any attacker who might strike. “After I finish the army, I am almost sure I will leave and go to Russia or Canada,” he said. “Just not here.—Reuters