Ramallah, Aug 02: Yasser Arafat asked 17 militants to leave his Ramallah headquarters today to ease political pressure on the Palestinian leader, a leader of the militants said. Kamel Ghanam, a Ramallah chief of the al Aqsa martyrs' brigades, said the militants had refused Arafat's request to move to the west bank town of Jericho and were being confined to a single room in Arafat's compound.
Ghanam said Arafat had asked the men to move because "the world has changed" and he was under intense pressure due to their presence.
Another militant in the compound, speaking on condition of anonymity, said removing militants from the headquarters was an Israeli condition for allowing Arafat to travel.
Arafat has been confined to his office building for the past year and a half, watching as Israeli forces knocked down almost all the buildings in the block-sized compound. Israel's position is that he can leave, but may not be allowed to return.
Ghanam said the militants would resist attempts by Palestinian security forces to remove them.
"Arafat is surrounded by thieves and collaborators who give him bad advice," Ghanam said. Bureau Report