RAMALLAH, West Bank'Israel's siege of Yasser Arafat's headquarters ended early today after tanks roared away as part of a deal allowing six Palestinian men wanted by Israel to be spirited off to a desert prison under American and British guard.
Hundreds of Palestinians converged on Arafat's battered compound in the dead of night to celebrate his freedom. Looking at first enraged, and later tired, Arafat told the Los Angeles Times and other reporters that he was appreciative of the diplomatic breakthrough. But he said he was more immediately worried about midnight violence at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where a volatile stand-off continues.
The end of the siege removes an explosive point of confrontation that has inflamed tensions here. But for Arafat, freedom is relative. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sent tanks and troops to surround Arafat March 29 following a wave of suicide bombings culminating in an attack on a hotel full of Jews celebrating the Passover Seder.
