Two Israeli soldiers were killed Friday as IDF forces moved into Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound. Heavy gun fighting was reported, and Palestinians said 11 people had been killed. On Saturday, an Israeli Border Policeman was shot dead as two Palestinians were killed as they tried to enter Israel to perpetrate a terror attack. Israeli forces moved into Beit Jala, south of Jerusalem, after Palestinians fired a mortar at the Gilo neighborhood.

Palestinian sources said that Israel issued an ultimatum demanding that Arafat hand over wanted Palestinians being sheltered in his offices, including the killers of Tourism Minister Rechavam Ze'evi. Israeli security officials said that no ultimatum had been issued, but that Israel had requested that the wanted men be turned over.

The Israeli military operations came after the government declared early Friday that Arafat was the "enemy" and vowed to isolate him.

Israeli troops arrested 70 in Ramallah's "Mukata." IDF bulldozers destroyed fences and walls around the compound, and heavy gunfire exchanges took place between troops and Palestinian security guards. Palestinian officials said that portions of the compound were on fire and that the IDF had captured at least seven buildings, including Arafat's own office building.

At one point Arafat took refuge in a windowless, basement room with close aides. Later reports said that Israel would allow him to occupy and move around the second floor, but had turned off the electricity. The Israeli commander in charge of the Central region, Major General Yitzhak Eitan, said that IDF troops controlled all buildings in the area of the compound near Arafat's living quarters but stressed that no order had been given to enter Arafat's offices.

Israeli troops reportedly seized a large number of weapons, including anti-tank missiles, which are prohibited by the Oslo accords, as well as equipment that the Palestinians used to listen in on Israeli phone conversations.

Arafat's aides said his building had come under heavy tank and machine-gun fire, but that, contrary to rumors, Arafat was unhurt. "They want me under arrest or in exile or dead, but I am telling them, I prefer to be martyred," Mr. Arafat said in a telephone interview with Al-Jazeera, the Qatar based satellite television station. "May God make us martyrs."

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters that IDF tanks "are firing directly at Arafat's office. They are targeting him. His life is in danger. The situation is very, very dangerous."

Lt. Boaz Pomerantz, 22, from Kiryat Shmona, was killed during the military operations in Ramallah, as was Staff Sgt. Roman Shliapstein, 21, from Ma'ale Efraim. Four other Israeli soldiers were wounded, three of them lightly and one sustaining moderate wounds. Palestinians reported that 7 people were killed, and over 40 injured, 11 critically, in the gun battles.

Eyewitnesses told Reuters that Israeli soldiers in the compound announced over loudspeakers that Arafat's security guards must lay down their arms and surrender or be killed. Arafat was just a few yards away from the fighting, his aides said. In an earlier incursion into Ramallah on March 11, Israeli troops had refrained from entering the "Mukata."

According to media reports, the army was planning to mobilize up to 20,000 reservists to take part in an extended military campaign against Palestinian terrorist infrastructure. The army reportedly imposed blockades of all major Palestinian cities overnight, and the Gaza Strip was effectively cut into three separate sections yesterday.

Sharon: "Arafat is the enemy"
After an all-night emergency cabinet session, Sharon declared that "Arafat is an enemy, and at this stage he will be isolated." The government made its decision in the wake of "horrific terrorist attacks" over the past few days. Sharon cited the suicide bombing attack during the Passover Seder in Netanya, where 21 people were killed, the terrorist infiltration into Elon Moreh on Thursday night, resulting in 4 deaths, and the stabbing attack Friday morning in Netzarim, where two Israelis were killed.

"All this has happened at a time when Israel's hand was, and still is extended towards peace," Sharon told reporters at a live televised news conference. "We have done everything in our power to achieve a cease-fire and an immediate entry into the Tenet process in order to advance any possibility of a cease-fire. All we have received in return was terrorism, terrorism and more terrorism.

"No sovereign nation can endure a series of events such as these as a normal turn of events." Sharon announced the government's decision to launch an "extensive operational activity against Palestinian terrorism… Israel will act to crush the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, in all its parts and components, and will carry out comprehensive activity to achieve this goal."

Sharon refrained from defining the practical implications of what the declaration of Arafat as an "enemy" might be, or what his isolation would entail. Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel had no intentions of re-conquering the territories but was involved in an all-out war against terrorism.

In response to the Israeli military actions in Ramallah, Arafat said in a telephone interview with the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera television station that he would never surrender and that he was prepared to become a "shahid" - a martyr like some of his former comrades who had been killed by Israel.

Wave of deadly terror continues
Two Israelis were stabbed to death Friday morning by a Palestinian who infiltrated the settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip. The victims were identified as Michael Orlanski, 70, of Tel Aviv, and Tuvia Wisner, 79. The two men were the parents of residents of the settlement, who were visiting for the Pesach holiday.

According to media reports, Orlanski and Wisner were stabbed as they were on their way to morning prayers at the Netzarim synagogue. The terrorist, who was a long-time worker at Netzarim, took refuge in the synagogue before escaping. IDF forces launched an extensive manhunt for the terrorist. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the terror attack.

Four Elon Moreh residents, all members of the same family, were killed Thursday night when a terrorist gunman infiltrated into their home in the Nablus area settlement. Other family members hid in a room in the house until security forces made their way inside and ensured that the terrorist was dead.

The victims were identified as David and Rachel Gavish, veteran residents of Elon Moreh, their son Avraham, an IDF officer who had been recently married, and Rachel's father, Yitzhak Kaner.

Benzi Lieberman, head of the Samaria Regional Council, said it was the third time in recent months that terrorists infiltrated the community. In recent weeks, Palestinians have entered Elon Moreh, which has no electronic fencing around it, and stabbed local residents including an 8-year-old boy.

The death toll of Wednesday night's suicide bombing attack in Netanya rose to 21 with the death of one of the people critically injured in the blast. As of Friday morning, 54 of the injured were still hospitalized, nearly 20 of them in serious condition.

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