Occupied Palestine

Israel's siege of Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah has provoked fury across the Arab world and a Jordanian official said Amman was considering expelling Israeli ambassador David Dadon in protest.

Palestinian gunmen killed in intelligence building in the West Bank town of Tulkarm eight suspected collaborators and Islamic leaders expressed fury at Israel's isolation of Yasser Arafat as Israeli forces tightened their siege of the Palestinian leader's office.

Middle East envoys from the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia were apparently blocked from seeing Arafat because of Sharon's policy of cutting him off from the outside world.

"The siege is still imposed around Arafat," Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abdo Rabbo told Reuters. "There are international envoys who planned to visit him but the Israelis are still preventing them from doing so."

The army said troops had stopped 50 foreigners, mostly Italians, from entering Ramallah, where they had planned to join others who reached Arafat's headquarters on Sunday.

The group, calling itself Grassroots International Protection for the Palestinian People, wants to shield Arafat from Israeli troops who have taken over most of his compound.


In Qalqilya

On Sunday night, about 100 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles thrust into the central West Bank town of Qalqilya for the second time in three weeks.

Residents reported heavy machinegun fire and explosions, and said the Israelis had cut power and water supplies before moving in. The army said one soldier was badly wounded and seven were hurt when an explosive detonated during a house search.


Pope Calls for Prayer

In the Vatican, Pope John Paul spoke of the "sad and worrying news" from the Middle East. "I invite you to pray today in particular for the inhabitants of Bethlehem, the birth town of Jesus, which is going through difficult hours and is in grave peril," the Pope told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.


Ramallah

The army, which has turned Ramallah into a closed military zone while it hunts for Palestinian militants, said it had rounded up more than 500 men for interrogation.
Late on Sunday, Israeli troops shot at a commercial building in Ramallah where about 30 people, including some Palestinian policemen, were holed up, witnesses said. There was no return fire. Ambulances were denied access, the witnesses said.

A Palestinian doctor, Munther al-Sharif, said the bodies of two men, one in his 50s and one in his 20s, were later recovered from the building. The younger man's head had been smashed in.