RAMALLAH, West Bank ? Israel said it had stopped demolishing Yasser Arafat’s West Bank headquarters Sunday but would maintain a siege around the building and demand the surrender of the people inside. The move followed a day of protests against the siege that left five Palestinians dead.

Palestinian leaders declared a general strike for today, appealed to the Arab world for help and called on their people to resist the Israeli operation, which started Thursday after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a Tel Aviv bus, killing himself and six others.

In Washington, White House spokeswoman Jeanne Mamo said Sunday that Israel’s assault was “not helpful in reducing terrorist violence or promoting Palestinian reforms.”

France led a European wave of criticism against the Israeli assault, calling it “unacceptable.” A Greek Foreign Ministry statement said that Arafat asked Greece to work with the United States and Europe to end the siege, while Britain and Russia urged Israel to end the confinement. The U.N. Security Council was to convene today about the siege.

By the time huge Israeli military bulldozers pulled out of the city-block-sized compound after nightfall Sunday, only one building stood intact Arafat’s office, where he and his aides were confined to four rooms.

Israelis themselves debated the usefulness of the operation, the third inside Arafat’s compound this year, especially given the persistent reports that its actual goal was to compel Arafat to leave the Palestinian territories a dramatic prospect that could redefine the terms of the current conflict.

Palestinian officials had also warned that Israel’s pulverization of Arafat’s compound endangered the safety of the feeble 72-year-old Palestinian leader, and after nightfall Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the demolition work had ended.

“There is no physical danger, neither to Arafat nor to the other people,” Peres said Sunday on CNN’s Late Edition.

“We don’t want to expel him, we don’t want to kill him, we don’t want to hurt him,” he said. “There was a vote in the government. The majority of the government decided against expulsion.”

Earlier in the day, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and bullets to try to stop demonstrations in West Bank towns as thousands of marchers disregarded military orders confining them to their homes. Four protesters were killed during the demonstrations, Palestinians said.

Later, a 13-year-old boy was also killed under disputed circumstances: Palestinians said he was shot while violating the curfew, while Israeli military sources said a firebomb he was trying to light ignited his clothing instead.

About 7,000 Palestinians marched in Lebanon’s largest refugee camp, threatening retaliation should Israel harm or kill Arafat.

“If Arafat is martyred, we will bomb embassies,” some of the marchers shouted in Ein el-Hilweh camp. The demonstrators carried portraits of Arafat, Palestinian flags and placards calling on world leaders to protect Arafat.