GAZA CITY, Sept 7 (AFP) -
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has appealed to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to "urgently" intervene against Israeli moves to militarily seal off Jerusalem, a senior aide told AFP on Friday.
The Palestinian leader sent similar messages to Arab League chief Amr Mussa and Jordan's King Abdullah II asking them to "urgently intervene to save Jerusalem," said the aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina.
The Palestinian leadership charged, after its weekly meeting Friday night, that Israel was moving forward with a plan to seal off Arab east Jerusalem, home to the third holiest mosque in Islam, from the West Bank and the Palestinian people. (Read photo caption)
"The Israeli government has for three days been executing a military plan to isolate Jerusalem from the rest of the Palestinian territories," it said in a statement after the meeting chaired by Arafat.
"The occupation forces are encircling the city with tanks and bulldozers, imposing a blockade, digging trenches, setting up barbed wire and placing surveillance cameras at all the crossroads," the Palestinian WAFA news agency quoted the Palestinian leadership as saying.
The aim of the plan, it said, was to cut off all links between Jerusalem and the occupied territories, and prevent Palestinians from entering the city.
Israel has proclaimed Jerusalem its "eternal and unified capital" after seizing the eastern sector and the West Bank from Jordanian control in the 1967 Middle East war, a claim never recognised by the international community.
On Wednesday, Israeli troops reinforced security around Jerusalem and its border with the West Bank following a wave of Palestinian bombings in which at least 16 people were injured, and fears of more attacks ahead of two sensitive anniversaries.
More than 1,000 military and police reinforcements have been deployed inside the city and roadblocks set up around its perimeter, while there are reported plans to create "buffer zones" against the occupied territories.
The project was decided several weeks ago by the Israeli security cabinet, according to Israeli radio reports.
Israeli media have forecast heightened violence ahead of September 16, the anniversary of the massacre of some 1,500 Palestinians in refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982, and the first anniversary of the outbreak of the current Palestinian uprising on September 28.
Israel reportedly expects Palestinian Resistance to target Jerusalem -- holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians -- in order to highlight the religious nature of the battle.
The Palestinian leadership is composed of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority and members of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Dome of the RockCalled the most beautiful building in Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock is the holiest Muslim shrine in the city. Muslims believe the gold-domed building was built over the rock from which Muhammad rose to heaven. Jews believe it is the place Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son, Isaac.