Troops Back in at Arafat Hq

Israeli troops today reoccupied three buildings near Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank, just two days after ending a siege of his compound.

The army also said it had arrested 32 Palestinians in the West Bank overnight, and claimed 23 of those were "wanted suspects" in attacks on Israel. Many of them were captured in Jenin in the far northern part of the West Bank.

By dawn, Israeli forces had occupied three buildings near Mr Arafat's compound which they had abandoned on Sunday following a 10-day siege that destroyed most of the structures surrounding his office.

Troops were posted on the roof of the eight-storey Palestinian ministry of culture building, about 500 metres from Mr Arafat's office, and on the roof of another eight-storey building still under construction. They were also in a nearby house. The army had no immediate comment on the deployment.

Israel had attacked Mr Arafat's compound on September 19 following a suicide bomb attack on a bus that killed six Israelis. Despite withdrawing under heavy US pressure, Israeli officials said they would still seek to arrest alleged terrorists they said were inside the building. One Israeli soldier was killed and another seriously wounded yesterday when gunmen fired on troops from a building in the West Bank city of Nablus. Return fire from tanks apparently set off a blaze that sent black smoke pouring into the sky from a partially completed 10-storey building.

The al-Quds Brigade, a wing of the militant group Islamic Jihad, sent a statement to news agencies in Beirut claiming responsibility for the attack.

In separate incidents yesterday, Palestinian security officials said a 10-year-old boy was shot and killed and 25 other people injured in clashes in Nablus. Doctors said an 11-year-old Palestinian boy was shot to death in a nearby refugee camp while throwing stones at soldiers on his way to school.

The military had no comment on the incident involving the 10-year-old, but said in the other incident, soldiers had fired at a youth who was about to throw a firebomb. Nablus is under a military-enforced curfew.

Early today, a Palestinian was killed by tank fire in Gaza after militants threw grenades at Israeli forces just outside the Gaza Strip, witnesses said. The man, 50, was a guard at a garage. Israeli forces looking for the attackers lit the sky with flares and fired machine guns. Islamic Jihad, claiming responsibility, said the attackers returned safely.