OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 13 September 2003 — Dead or alive?
That’s the choice Israeli commandos could face with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat if they get the green light to pluck him from his West Bank compound and force him into exile.
With Arafat daring Israel to come and get him and vowing a fight to the death, one leading Israeli military expert said troops might even go as far as pumping gas into his headquarters in Ramallah to disable him and his defenders before storming in.
But such a move would carry its own risks for elite Israeli Army units in an operation that security sources said had been rehearsed for more than a year.
Arafat’s fate hung in the balance after Israel decided on Thursday to “remove” him as what it called an obstacle to peace, a threat that sparked an international outcry and drew tens of thousands of Palestinian protesters rallying to his defense.
The vague wording of Israel’s decision left room for several options, including killing Arafat — a proposal which Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz raised but Prime Minister Ariel Sharon shot down — or exiling him from the Palestinian territories.
Commandos have spent months conducting mock raids to snatch the 74-year-old ex-guerrilla leader, whom Israel blames for fomenting violence against its citizens — a charge he denies.
Israeli media reports said army contingency plans called for Arafat to be flown to a secret location in North Africa, possibly Libya. Sources close to the government said it had asked the army to refresh plans but not to take immediate action.
Security experts said such an operation would likely take place at night with a massive tank raid to secure the area and a lightning takeover of Arafat’s offices. Soldiers have already commandeered several buildings overlooking the compound.
“I do not expect Arafat would come out meekly to be bundled into an Israeli jeep,” said Itay Gil, a security consultant who served in an Israeli police special forces unit. “He will likely surround himself with several circles of bodyguards.”
Arafat, the longtime symbol of Palestinian nationalism, keeps a pistol at his side. His aides say he would be ready to die rather than give himself up.
Arafat is a master of survival who over the decades has escaped assassination attempts, military and political battles and a plane crash to remain the supreme Palestinian leader. Veterans of Israeli security forces said any assault on Arafat’s compound would be handled as a “hostage-rescue” scenario, in some ways similar to the raid that won the release of Israeli hostages held at Enbebbe airport in Uganda in 1976.
The objective would be to capture Arafat, even if he resists, while taking out other armed men around him, they said.
But analysts said there was still a risk that Arafat could be killed in the crossfire. He is already largely confined to one of the few building still standing at his headquarters, where heavily armed bodyguards sleep in narrow hallways.
