RAMALLAH, June 6: Israeli troops stormed up to the doorstep of Yasser Arafat’s West Bank headquarters on Thursday, killing one of the Palestinian leader’s bodyguards and wounding six other men in a hit-and-run strike.

In a sign of Arafat’s vulnerability, a top Palestinian diplomat said the 72-year-old leader, who made a weary show of defiance after touring his wrecked living quarters, was considering retirement once he has secured a state for his people.

The tanks and armoured personnel carriers, which had deployed around the building around 2am (5am PST), poured into the compound that the Israeli army besieged for five weeks in April and May after a suicide bombing.

There were heavy exchanges of gunfire as the troops destroyed several buildings and a number of cars before abruptly pulling back six hours later.

Cranking up the pressure, Israeli tanks and troops returned briefly on Thursday afternoon to raid an area in the south of Ramallah, at the other end of the city from Arafat’s base.

That raid ended with the army arresting six Palestinians after a failed hunt for Sheikh Hilmi, an activist from the Hamas whose house was searched.

Apache helicopters opened fire on the ground as 15 tanks surrounded Hilmi’s home.

In the pre-dawn strike on Arafat’s headquarters, a column of about 50 tanks and armoured vehicles tanks opened fire with shells and heavy machineguns on his offices, with one witness in the building saying it was hit by some 30 shells.

Arafat later guided reporters round his rooms which had been shattered by Israeli shellfire.

“They wanted me to be there,” he said. Arafat had been evacuated to a safer part of the building. Outside, the compound grounds were littered with crushed cars and dynamited or bulldozed buildings.

Arafat was unharmed by the operation, which Israel said had not been aimed at hurting him. —AFP