RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli soldiers blew up the five-story headquarters of a television and radio network Saturday, the latest in a series of retaliatory attacks on the infrastructure of the crumbling Palestinian Authority.
No one was injured in the predawn blast at the Palestinian Broadcasting Corp., which came two days after a Palestinian gunman attacked a banquet hall in the Israeli city of Hadera. Seven people, including the gunman, were killed and 33 were injured in the banquet attack.
Palestinian demonstrators, behind a fire barricade, hurl stones toward Israeli forces during clashes in Ramallah, West Bank. Intensifying pressure on Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli troops seized the building of the official Palestinian television and radio broadcasting early Saturday and then set off a controlled explosion that set the entire complex ablaze.
"This Palestinian television and radio station has long been a center of incitement against the state of Israel," said Arye Mekel, a senior official at the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Israeli soldiers in recent months have bombed or razed an airport, seaport, police stations and a criminal forensics laboratory, citing the need to foil terrorists. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has been confined to his Ramallah headquarters for a month by Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers.
"What you see is a process of systematic destruction of a potential Palestinian state," said Mustafa Barghouthi, a medical doctor and prominent analyst.
On Saturday, Israeli commandos set explosives in every room of the radio and television facility, destroying studios, control rooms, offices and computer facilities, witnesses said.
"We started from zero, and it's as if we are starting from zero again," Radwan Abuayyash, chairman of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corp., said as he surveyed the wrecked facility where more than 150 journalists and employees had worked. He said damage amounted to more than $1 million.
Many of the targets destroyed by Israeli forces were built with money donated by European and Arab nations and the U.S. government. A Palestinian official said he is dismayed at the lack of a world reaction to the destruction.
"Donors are angry, but they have been unable to put any pressure on Israel" since the Sept. 11 terror attacks hardened attitudes toward terrorism, said Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian minister of foreign cooperation.
This was not the first time the Israelis acted to rein in a media that gives voice to the public's anger at the Israeli presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Five weeks ago, Israeli military engineers blew up the giant broadcasting tower of the Voice of Palestine Radio in Ramallah. In November 2000, Israeli helicopter gunships hit radio and television transmitters in the Gaza Strip.
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