Yasser Arafat Blocked in Ramallah for Almost 10 Months
On December 3, 2001, the Israeli Air Force fired missiles at Arafat's Gaza heliport following two back-to-back suicide bombings claimed by the radical Islamic group Hamas, which together killed 25 people.
The destruction of his three choppers left Arafat, at the time on a visit to Ramallah, stranded in his West Bank headquarters, the start of a long Israeli blockade of the Palestinian leader aimed at isolating him from the world, AFP reported. At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Arafat had declared a "terrorist war" on Israel, before branding him "irrelevant."
On March 29, two days after another Hamas martyrdom-seeker killed a record 29 people in one attack on a hotel, the Israeli Army staged its largest invasion of the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war, and Arafat found his Ramallah headquarters besieged by tanks and snipers.
That siege lasted until the start of May, when the army pulled back after Arafat agreed to jail under international guard five members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and his own financial advisor, as well as exile 13 activists trapped in a parallel siege in a Bethlehem church.
The deal cost him dear in terms of popularity, broaching as it did the question of exile, a sensitive issue to Palestinians.
On May 13, Arafat made his first trip out of Ramallah, on a brief tour of Bethlehem and Jenin, whose refugee camp had been devastated in fighting between Palestinian activists and Israeli soldiers.
But amid widespread discontent with the way the sieges had ended, Arafat encountered sparse crowds in Bethlehem and open hostility in the Jenin Camp, where he actually cut short his visit after unknown arsonists torched a podium he was meant to triumphantly appear on.
After that, the 73-year-old was theoretically free to leave Ramallah, but refused to for fear that Sharon would not let him return to the Palestinian territories if he went abroad.
Israeli troops moved back into Palestinian cities on June 19, after more bloody martyrdom-seeking operations in Bait-ul-Moqaddas, and since then there have been tanks more or less permanently stationed close to the Muqataa building. Arafat, fearful Israel could raid his offices, has not ventured out of the building in recent months, especially since reports emerged that Israel was seeking a number of his close associates who had gathered inside the complex and were accused of "terrorism."
The Israeli Army has used its three-month reoccupation of the West Bank to hunt down suspected Palestinian activists, arresting thousands in a massive dragnet operation and killing dozens in raids.
On September 19, Israeli tanks once again pulled up outside Arafat's doorstep.
Israel demanded Arafat hand over 41 activists pinned down in the compound with the Palestinian leader who then scoffed at their demands.
Israel refused to bow to a unanimous UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate withdrawal, despite drawing the ire of its main ally Washington which, while abstaining from the UN vote, did not veto the measure.
Under mounting U.S. pressure, Israel on Sunday pulled back in a sudden reversal of its tough policy, as Washington tried to soothe regional tensions to gain backing for its campaign against Iraq.
However, with Israel troops based all around Ramallah and entering the town to impose curfew, the city is still effectively occupied and Arafat is unlikely to venture beyond the narrow confines of his base.
The Palestinians have declined to say whether any of the men wanted by Israel were still inside the base, although Israeli reports said the main suspects were still effectively trapped there.