The IDF also divided up the Gaza Strip into three areas. The Netzarim junction was blocked, stopping traffic (except along a narrow coastal strip) to and from Gaza City which lies to the north; the Gush Katif junction was similarly blockaded, stopping traffic to and from Khan Yunis to the south; while in the middle lie Dir el Balah and other villages. The army carried out a similar action in April of this year after mortar attacks on the city of Sderot. Areas in Rafiach were also surrounded and cut off today."

RAMALLAH - WORLD TRIBUNE - Thursday, December 13, 2001 Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has gone into hiding after an Israeli missile attack damaged his headquarters here earlier today.

Israel's military launched a major offensive meant to destroy the Palestinian Authority security and weapons infrastructure in the wake of a Palestinian attack on a Jewish community in the West Bank. Ten Israelis were killed in the Palestinian ambush on an Israeli bus at the entrance to the Jewish settlement of Emanuel on Wednesday evening.

PA sources said Arafat was evacuated from his Ramallah headquarters on early Thursday and taken to a secret location. The sources said the complex was damaged by an Israeli missile attack, Middle East Newsline reported.

Arafat has prepared an underground bunker in the Ramallah area to survive any Israeli attack, PA sources said. Other bunkers were built for Arafat in the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, the PA's Voice of Palestine ended transmissions and Palestinian sources said the radio and television broadcast station was destroyed by Israeli tank fire. Both radio and television broadcasts later continued via other facilities.

Israeli air and ground forces operated throughout early Thursday in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The targets included the Palestinian weapons industry in the West Bank city of Nablus.

"We also struck the Palestinian Scientific Committee, the code-word for the Palestinian weapons industry," Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, head of the military's operations directorate, said. "There, they produce weapons and bombs."

Israeli troops have also entered several Palestinian areas in the Gaza Strip. The radar facility at the moribund PA airport at Dahaniya was destroyed. The Gaza Strip was divided into three separate cantons controlled by the military.

Israeli AH-64A helicopters and F-16 multi-role fighters struck PA police and naval installations throughout Gaza. Israeli tanks shelled several West Bank cities.

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that Israel would sever all relations with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. But the ministers did not decide to exile or assassinate Arafat.

"We have reached a point where Arafat no longer serves as an address to deal with terrorism," Israeli Justice Minister Meir Shetreet said.

Before his departure, Arafat ordered the closure of the offices of the Islamic opposition in a last-minute move to stave off the toppling of his regime. PA sources said security officers arrived at several Hamas and Jihad offices to prevent them opening.

But Islamic opposition sources dismissed the Arafat decision. The sources said the Hamas and Jihad offices were scheduled to be closed over the weekend for the Id El Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim fast month of Ramadan.

Hours later on Thursday afternoon, PA officials announced that Arafat had rescinded the closure order. The officials said the rescinding of the order was in response to the Israeli military offensive against the PA.

Palestinian sources said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Western leaders telephoned Arafat and appealed to him to crack down on Palestinian insurgents. The sources said PA officials sent messages to both Israel and the United States urging a halt in Israeli bombing to allow Arafat to round up suspected Palestinian insurgents.

In Washington, the Bush administration said Israel has not relayed to the United States any intention to destroy the PA or exile Arafat. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns - on tour of North African Arab states - said the United States would continue to negotiate with Arafat.

"The United States has not seen any indication that Israel is trying to get Yasser Arafat," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

The Israeli offensive came hours after Palestinian insurgents from Hamas as well as Arafat's Fatah movement attacked the Jewish settlement of Emanuel. Ten people were killed and more than 30 were injured when a commuter bus was bombed and riddled with bullets at the entrance of the commu

The U.S. Air Force is using an Israeli air-to-ground missile to help blow up the last strongholds of Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden.

U.S. defense officials said the air force is using the AGM-142 missile to target Bin Laden lairs in the Tora Bora mountains. The AGM-142 Have Nap missile is the U.S. term for Israel's Popeye. The Popeye is manufactured by Rafael, Israel Armament Development Authority.

The missile provided to the U.S. Air Force is a joint venture of Rafael and Lockheed Martin. The United States has bought several hundred million dollars worth of AGM-142.

The AGM-142 is said to have a range of about 80 kilometers. The missile employs a television seeker to deliver nearly three tons of explosives to its target. The missile was outfitted with a warhead meant to penetrate earth and rock.

The Popeye was examined by the Pentagon in 1986 after U.S. Air Force jets failed to damage Libyan weapons facilities. Officials said the U.S. Air Force is directing the missile toward the opening of caves believed deployed by Bin Laden.

U.S. officials said Afghanistan's new interim leader, Hamid Karzai, has a long history of contacts with both the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence service, known as ISI. The connections are said to be the reason Karzai was the candidate most acceptible to the United States and Pakistan. Karzai will head the new government over the next six months.

Karzai and several brothers own a chain of restauraunts in Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Baltimore. They have residences in Quetta, Islamabad and Peshawar. A native of Kandahar, Karzai has spent much of his life in Quetta.

Karzai met the late CIA Director Bill Casey when Casey made one of his numerous trips to Pakistan during the U.S. covert operation to back mujahideen rebels against the Soviet Union during the 1980s.

His ties to ISI are based on connections to former ISI Director Akhtar Abdur Rahman Khan and date to the early 1980s.

Karzai, a moderate Msulim, and his father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, were befriended by ISI in the early 1980s. Ties between Karzai and the Pakistani spy agency became strained, however, after assassins murdered the elder Karzai in Quetta in what was viewed as a hit by Taliban leaders. Karzai believed ISI, through its connections to the Taliban could have prevented the killing.

The ISI reestablished contact in September and began supplying logistics support and arms for anti-Taliban southern tribes in Afghanistan, including Gul Agha, the former governor of Kandahar and Haji Abdul Khaliq, two key commanders in the final battle for control of Kandahar.

Karzai has met several times with Pakistan military officials during recent anti-Taliban military operations.