February 28, 1996
Web posted at: 12:30 a.m. EST (0530 GMT)
From Correspondent Walter Rodgers
EREZ CHECKPOINT, Gaza Strip (CNN) -- Yasser Arafat was called into account after Sunday's suicide bombings in Israel and presented with Israeli demands at a late night meeting Tuesday.
Israeli army chief Amnon Shahak met with Arafat for almost three hours at the Erez crossing on the border between Israel and Gaza in what Israel radio described as a "tense" and "tough" exchange.
First, the Shahak presented Arafat with the names of 10 members of the militant wing of Hamas that the Israeli government wants him to arrest. Shahak said that the West Bank and Gaza Strip would remain closed until he cracked down on Islamists.
Israel periodically closes the West Bank and Gaza out of security concerns, preventing thousands of Palestinians from working in Israel.
But the United Nations objects to such closures and said on Tuesday that they stifle the Palestinian economy and are harmful to the peace process.
Second, Shahak demanded that Arafat dismantle the military wing of Hamas, which carried out the weekend bombings.
Sunday's terrorist attacks stunned Israelis and may have seriously jeopardized Prime Minister Shimon Peres' re-election chances. Polls showed support for him dropping after the attacks, so he's demanding that Arafat crack down even harder.
"This was the basis of our understanding that he takes over in order to demonstrate his capacity to govern," Peres said.
Arafat's condemnation of Sunday's bombings was not enough for the Israelis. But sweeping arrests of Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists after the bombings could risk a violent confrontation with his own people, who resent any Israeli intrusion in their own affairs.
Hamas members reported Tuesday that Arafat's security forces arrested more than 120 Hamas activists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinian students are angry with the arrests, although only two of those detained actually belonged to the military wing of Hamas, according to Israeli radio.
In a refuge camp where the suicide bombers lived, the graffiti that inspired their terrorism remains: it calls for the revenge of Yehiya Ayash, a Palestinian bomb maker believed to have been assassinated by Israel.
One of the bombers, 25-year-old Ibrahim Abu Farahneh, was a disciple of Ayash, according to his friends.
His mother says that all she knows is that her sons have been missing for days. Few in the village seemed to grasp that her son's actions have jeopardized the Israeli-Palestinian peace process -- and could decide the next elections in Israel.
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