GAZA CITY, 10 November 2004 — Israeli and Palestinian officials have reached an agreement in principle on funeral arrangements for the ailing Yasser Arafat, a Palestinian official said as hundreds of Palestinians poured into the streets of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah late yesterday after officials said Arafat was suffering a brain hemorrhage.

“Senior Palestinian and Israeli officials have reached an agreement in principle on the arrangements to be made after the death of president Arafat,” the official said.

He refused to give further details about the agreement, and in particular whether Israel had given the go-ahead for the Palestinian leader to eventually be buried in his battered Muqataa compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Earlier, a senior Israeli official, who asked not to be named, said that the two sides would hold talks on the issue “in the night”.

No official announcement on Arafat’s eventual death would be made until “an agreement is reached on his burial,” the Israeli source added.

Asked about an eventual burial in Ramallah, the Israeli official said the Jewish state had not yet given the go-ahead. “That issue has not yet been decided, and there are differences of opinion among Israeli officials on that point,” the official said.

A senior Foreign Ministry official hinted yesterday that the Jewish state would likely not oppose the burial of Arafat in Ramallah.

Earlier, the head of Arafat’s office, Tayeb Abdelrahim, told reporters in Ramallah that should Arafat die, he would be laid to rest in the West Bank town at the Muqataa, where Israel kept him under virtual house arrest for nearly three years.

“In case the worst will happen, all arrangements will take place at the Muqataa,” Abdelrahim said, tears in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Palestinians were in a somber mood after conflicting reports of Arafat was flashed on the air.

Shopkeepers closed their stores as a mark of respect following the main evening prayers, witnesses said.

A demonstration around the old offices of President Arafat saw groups of people holding candles and praying for the well-being of their president. Many were holding posters of Arafat.

All was calm in the main town of Gaza City, where most residents went about their usual business and packed the mosques during the night of Al-Qadr, the holiest night in the Muslim month of Ramadan.

People were glued to every source of news and were monitoring the situation through television, radio and Internet. Even those few who went about their Eid shopping were keeping tabs about Arafat’s health.

Many were upset when they heard that in the event of their beloved leader’s death, the burial would be done in Ramallah. One voiced the general feeling, “We’re angry that he (Arafat) is to be buried in his jail (Muqataa).”

In Gaza City a big number of journalists working for Arab and foreign press entered Eretz checkpoint heading to Gaza City after the Palestinian delegation traveled to France to visit the president.

A big number of those journalists went to Khan Younis City in the south of the Gaza Strip to take photos of the cemetery where the Palestinian president’s father was buried. This cemetery is located in a very crowded area close to the vegetable market in the middle of the city. Also the president’s sister Anam Arafat was buried in that cemetery in the 1999.

People in Khan Younis hoped that Arafat, if he dies, would not be buried in this cemetery with many claiming that it was not suitable place for president to be buried. Also the journalists visited Al-Shohda cemetery in Gaza City where Yosra Arafat was buried in 2003.