Israeli army shoots dead four demonstrators

Israeli soldiers killed four demonstrators who were among thousands of Palestinians, many defying military curfews, who poured into the streets early today protesting at the Israeli assault on Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah.

Mr Arafat is trapped as the Israeli army reduced his presidential compound to rubble around him. There was international condemnation and calls for restraint as aides with Mr Arafat said they feared for his safety.

In the compound, Israeli threatened several times over loudspeakers to blow up the building where the Palestinian leader is holed up - the only one left standing - unless wanted men inside surrendered.

Israel has said it does not intend to harm Mr Arafat, and the army later said it had no plans of blowing up the building.

Mr Arafat's Fatah movement led protest marches in several West Bank towns, defying Israeli curfews.

In Ramallah, troops fired tear gas and live bullets to disperse hundreds of men, women and children chanting "long live Arafat, long live Palestine." Two protesters were killed by army fire, hospital officials said.

Two more people were killed in Tulkarem and the Balata refugee camp outside Nablus. In Tulkarem, gunmen walking in a crowd of about 1,200 people traded fire with Israeli troops. In the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, about 5,000 people joined the protests, some firing submachine guns into the air and holding up Arafat pictures.

The Palestinian leader is trapped inside his office building, one of only two still standing in the compound. The others have all been destroyed by the Israeli army in response to two suicide bombings in the past week, in which seven people died.

Mr Arafat was showered with rubble when an Israeli tank shell hit the floor directly above him yesterday, according to Palestinian officials inside the building. They said the Palestinian leader slept on the floor overnight, with an Uzi machine-gun beside him.

Israeli officials say Mr Arafat will not be harmed, nor will they try to force him into exile – a move Ariel Sharon is said to favour. They say they want the surrender of 19 alleged militants inside the building with Mr Arafat.

Israeli television, however, has reported that the real aim of the operation is to make life so uncomfortable for Mr Arafat in Ramallah that he volunteers to go into exile. Yesterday Mr Arafat was adamant he was staying put.

Responibility for last week's suicide bombings was claimed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two groups over which Mr Arafat is known to have little control.

Dramatically, Mr Arafat called for an end to attacks on Israeli civilians from his besieged office building yesterday. "I reiterate my call to the Palestinian people and all our parties to halt any violent attacks inside Israel because Sharon exploits them as a cover to destroy the peace of the brave," Mr Arafat said.

But Mr Arafat was also defiant yesterday. "We are ready for peace, not for capitulation and we will not give up Jerusalem or a grain of our soil from our homeland," he said.

The European Union called the demolition of Mr Arafat's compound "counter-productive". And on Friday, in a rare rebuke, the White House called for Israeli restraint, saying it had "a need to bear in mind the consequences of action".