Palestinians celebrate as Israel ends Arafat siege

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Scenes of celebration replaced those of armed siege amid the smashed glass and rubble at Yasser Arafat's Ramallah headquarters last night after the Israelis finally withdrew from the area.

There were jubilant scenes inside Mr Arafat's compound, among aides and guards to the Palestinian leader and a group of European peace activists. Mr Arafat's staff hugged one and other tearfully, as they ventured out into the chilly and foggy night to be greeted by a rush of journalists and TV cameras, kept back for hours beforehand by the Israeli army.

Dozens of Palestinian security officers brandishing assault rifles thronged, clapping and cheering at the Israeli soldiers' departure. Some flashed V-signs for victory.

In the town itself, Palestinian bulldozers began clearing roadblocks set up by the army on the streets leading to Mr Arafat's compound. However, the celebrations were tempered by concern at the scale of the destruction in the area.

A group of armed Palestinian security men stood triumphantly on the compound steps flourishing a Palestinian flag ­ an act that would have assured a sniper's bullet only hours beforehand. Others waved green and white flags of Mr Arafat's preventative security force.

Clutching his kalashnikov Said Abu Khamed, 35, a member of Mr Arafat's Force 17 guard, declared defiantly that the Palestinian Intifada would continue. "We will go on until the occupation ends and we get our own state," he said, as friends rushed up to embrace him. He spent five weeks living on one meal a day of bread, yoghurt, and canned beans. "It was very hard," he said. "There was a lot of shooting every day, the Israelis fired missiles into these buildings and kept us awake with sound grenades."

He was, he explained almost tearfully, inspired by his leader, Yasser Arafat. "He came to see us every day doing the rounds with his men to keep the morale up. He was great."

Mr Arafat himself appeared angry, shouting at TV cameras and waving his finger as he chastised the Israelis over the events at the Church of the Nativity, where there was a gun battle and a fire on the church's eastern side. It was, said ­ or rather shouted ­ Mr Arafat, a "big crime against a holy place in the Nativity Church". There was no evident sign that his life under siege had taxed his energy, or his flare for publicity.

One of Mr Arafat's guards described how the Palestinian leader spent his day in confinement watching television and giving interviews by walkie-talkie to the Arabic media because the surrounding Israeli army had blocked his telephones. "He ate what his soldiers ate, said the guard, who refused to give his name. Every day he had rice, lentil soup and a small piece of bread."

On the third day of the siege the Israeli army launched a bout of psychological warfare, he said. They entered the grounds of the compound and shouted by loud speaker at those in the building, appealing for them to remember their wives and their children and the importance of staying alive, he said.

The end of the siege came after a day of tense negotiations in accordance with the deal worked out between the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel and finally, the transfer of a group of Palestinian prisoners into British and American custody in the West Bank town of Jericho.

Several hundred people turned out to greet the convoy as it rumbled into Jericho, cheering and shouting cries of victory as it headed to the jail.

They are not easy inmates. Four of them were recently found guilty by an impromptu Palestinian military court of being involved in the assassination of Israel's hardline tourism minister, Rechavam Ze'evi, in October and sentenced to jail terms of between 12 months and 18 years.

The minister was killed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in response to the assassination by Israel of the PFLP leader, Abu Ali Mustafa, nearly two months earlier. Israel has been demanding their extradition ever since. It is understood there were last-minute disputes yesterday between the Palestinian and Israeli negotiators over whether two other Palestinians would also be transferred ­ the new head of the PFLP, Ahmed Saadat, and Fuad Shobaki, a senior Palestinian Authority official accused of acting as the Palestinian Authority's paymaster for a big arms smuggling operation.