JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Israel sent its warplanes against Palestinian targets early on Thursday and severed ties with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in a move that seemed likely to scupper the latest U.S. Middle East peace efforts.
The Middle East faced a fresh spiral of violence as Israeli planes struck in a wave of retaliatory raids for a double attack by Palestinian Resistance men who killed 10 Israelis and wounded dozens in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
The raids were the start of a wider military operation announced by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's security cabinet which decided in a meeting early on Thursday to give its occupation army orders ``to carry out arrests and confiscate weapons.''
The cabinet also decided that Arafat ``is no longer relevant as far as Israel is concerned and there will be no more contact with him.'' It said the decision did not mean Arafat would be personally harmed.
Officials said the decision meant there would be no more meetings with Palestinian officials and Israel would not rely on the Palestinian Authority to fight ``terrorism.''
``Arafat will no longer be the address for Israel to take care of the terror issue and from now on we will do whatever we can as a country to defend ourselves,'' Israeli Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit told a news conference after the meeting.
As the cabinet met, Israeli F-16s pounded the largest security installation in the Gaza Strip and other targets in a wave of raids that lasted hours. They attacked an airport in southern Gaza and a security installation in Nablus.
A radio mast was hit by helicopter missiles in the West Bank city of Ramallah, near Arafat's headquarters. Officials said he was in the office at the time. Tanks also fired at positions held by Arafat's elite Force-17 guard on Ramallah's outskirts.
``It is impossible to implement our commitments under the shadow of the comprehensive war,'' Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said. ``The minute this campaign stops we will carry out our duties.''
The dramatic surge in violence, including the ambush of a bus with grenades and machineguns near a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank, seemed likely to wreck peace mission of U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni aimed at ending nearly 15 months of bloodshed.
The United States pointed a finger at Arafat, blaming his inaction for the ordeal of his people, and said only his ''immediate, serious and sustained'' action against militants could end Palestinians' suffering.
Arafat took the unprecedented step of ordering the closure of all offices and institutions of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the groups behind dozens of suicide attacks inside Israel.