Israeli troops arrested 30 more Palestinians today in Ramallah, bringing to 61 the total seized in the two-day-old occupation of President Yasser Arafat's West Bank base.
An Israeli army spokesman said the new arrests were made in a training school for teachers as the Israelis, backed by tanks and armoured vehicles, pressed on with their largest military operation in weeks.
Among those arrested was Mr Yussef Tarifi, public prosecutor for the Ramallah area, according to his father, the Palestinian minister for civil affairs Mr Jamil Tarifi.
Scores of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles rolled into Ramallah early yesterday, encircled Mr Arafat's headquarters for the second time in four days and imposed a curfew on the town.
Israeli bulldozers used rubble and car wrecks to seal off the compound already battered by a short but ferocious tank attack on Thursday and a five-week siege that ended on May 2nd.
Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, said those arrested included the Ramallah head of the radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad which claimed last Wednesday's bus bombing that killed 17 Israelis.
Israeli state radio said the Israeli troops were looking in particular for Mr Mahmud Naif, who they say is a member of an armed wing of Arafat's Fatah movement.
The army said it found two booby-trapped cars containing 60 kilograms (132 pounds) of explosives destined for attacks on Israel, as well as five Kalashnikov assault rifles and false Israeli papers.
Tanks continued to surround Arafat's headquarters "to prevent terrorists from trying to take refuge there to escape arrest," the army spokesman said.
Mr Ben Eliezer said the operation would last "a day or two" and added that the Israelis had no intention of entering the Palestinian leader's compound.
AFP