Arafat Grabs Gun as Crisis Worsens
Dec. 4 -- For the first time since he returned from exile in 1994, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has brandished a gun in public.
Palestinian officials said Arafat’s submachine gun is usually carried by aides. He had not been seen holding it in public for years.
Arafat said he grabbed the weapon and kept it in his hand forprotection today because Jewish settlers blocked a main roadon which he was traveling in the Gaza Strip.
“The Saladin street was closed and I was compelled to hold my gun,” Arafat told reporters after stepping out of his car at his office in Gaza with the weapon in his hand.
Saladin Road links southern and northern Gaza Strip. It is under Palestinian control but is used by Jewish settlers in the Kfar Darom settlement. The Israeli army closed the road two weeks ago, although the Palestinians say this was illegal.
“As I was coming from the airport, they told me the settlers had blocked Saladin street. Is it logical they would block it without the help of the [Israeli] army?” asked Arafat
A Symbolic Gesture
It appeared that Arafat was carrying the weapon in a symbolic gesture. He gave no indication he would use it.
Israel army radio said settlers tried to throw stones atArafat’s convoy. The army would say only that it removed settlers from the roadside. More than two dozen settlers were detained, the radio said.
The gesture came as heavy gun battles raged early this morning near a shrine in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
The Israeli army said it sent gunships into action to stop attacks on Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, a flashpoint for violence where Jewish history says a biblical matriarch was buried.
Arafat said the Israeli shelling “was a shock because we had agreed to cool down the situation.”
The Palestinians said the fighting in Bethlehem was provoked by an incident on Sunday in which they said Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 25 people.
Fourteen Palestinians were injured in the fighting, which began Sunday and continued into the early hours today, Palestinian hospitals said.
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