Laying waste to Ramallah

RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 1 — Once a thriving West Bank city teeming with outdoor coffee shops, Ramallah has become a war zone of smoldering ruins. Four days into the Israeli siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s headquarters, the military is expanding its operation to door-to-door searches for Palestinian militants — and destroying everything in its path.

THE ISRAELIS ARE taking no chances. Using megaphones mounted on armored personnel carriers, soldiers approach apartment blocks where they believe Palestinian extremists are hiding. Residents are ordered into the street, where nervous Israeli soldiers separate men for questioning and remove women and children from the area.
Then the Israelis open fire on the buildings to neutralize any resistance left inside. These door-to-door “searches,” Israeli officials say, have led to the arrest of dozens of suspected Palestinian militants. They also have taken a humanitarian toll as hundreds of families have been forced to flee for their lives.
“We were willing to open doors with keys to let them in and show them there are no terrorists here,” said Mohammed, a 60-year-old Ramallah resident forced from his home by the Israelis. “They wouldn’t listen. They just forced their way in.”