GAZA, 8 April 2004 — The Palestinian Authority yesterday warned Washington not to interfere in its internal affairs, as Yasser Arafat brushed off recent threats to his life by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

“I am not afraid of Sharon’s threats,” the 74-year-old Arafat told the top-selling Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot.

“Do you know me as a person who is afraid? I am afraid only of Allah.

“This is not the first time that Sharon has threatened my life. He forgets that he also threatened me in Beirut,” added Arafat in reference to Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, where his Palestine Liberation Organization was then based.

Sharon was slapped down last week by his allies in Washington after giving an interview in which he warned that Arafat was a “marked man”.

But the Israeli premier repeated his threat Monday, saying Arafat was to blame for “the murder of Jews for decades” and that “all those who kill Jews or push for the killing of Jews or Israeli citizens deserve to die.”

Arafat told the paper he was opposed to the killing of Israeli civilians.

“I am against killing civilians. I have said this to my people on several occasions, in my name and in the name of the leadership: ‘Stop killing civilians.’”

The US State Department on Tuesday warned of any move to bring Hamas into the political fold after Arafat himself told a German magazine that he wants Hamas to be integrated into the Palestinian Authority, calling it “a terrorist organization ... that should be ostracized and disempowered.”

Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat reacted by saying that “the intra-Palestinian dialogue should be held in the national interest and it is an internal Palestinian affair” in which Washington must not interfere.

Since coming to power in 2001, Sharon has boycotted Arafat and his troops have effectively kept the Palestinian leader under house arrest for more than two years.

Saying that he sees no partner for peace among the Palestinian leadership, Sharon pledged last December to implement his own unilateral measures to end the conflict, including a pullout from the Gaza Strip.

Arafat said he wanted any such move to be coordinated with his Palestinian Authority.

He also said he had received assurances from the quartet that drafted the peace road map — the US, UN, European Union and Russia — that any withdrawal would be part of the troubled blueprint.

“We have received promises from the quartet and the Americans that the withdrawal will be part of the road map, and I hope it indeed will be,” he said.

Sharon is to travel to Washington next week where he will meet with US President George W. Bush on April 14 to seek his crucial support for his disengagement plan.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath is also to pay a visit to the United States where he will meet senior officials on April 21, sources in his office said yesterday. He is likely to press the point that the Gaza pullout should be coordinated with Palestinians.

International players, such as the United Nations, have warned against possible chaos that would follow a unilateral move, including a takeover by Hamas, whose popularity has soared during the intifada.

Meanwhile, scores of Palestinian women protested what they called US “war crimes” in Iraq. More than 150 women assembled outside the offices of the United Nations in Gaza where they burned an American flag to protest a US bid to quell the Iraqi uprising.

They also handed over a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in which they denounced “the grave violations perpetrated against the Iraqi people” by the US forces. “We call on you to act to put an end to these violations and war crimes carried out against civilians,” the letter added.

A similar demonstration also saw around 2,000 people gathering in the early evening in Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank town of Nablus. “From Palestine to Iraq: one people, one blood, one enemy!” the crowd chanted, while setting alight pictures of President Bush and Ariel Sharon.

In a statement issued in Gaza, Islamic Jihad also condemned the “crimes and atrocious massacres by the American occupation forces against innocent Iraqi civilians.”

The Hamas movement also condemned in a statement the “arbitrary killings” carried out by Americans against “our Iraqi brothers”.