Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was effectively grounded as the IDF destroyed runways at the Dahaniya International Airport in Gaza overnight. The action followed missile strikes Monday evening in which Arafat's two transport helicopters in Gaza City were destroyed. In addition, the IAF bombed Arafat's headquarters in Jenin and sent troops into Ramallah, Nablus and Tulkarm.

IAF helicopters fired missiles at the Palestinian Authority's Interior Ministry building in Ramallah Tuesday morning. Eyewitnesses said three shells hit near Arafat's headquarters in the city, the Associated Press reported. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The IDF strikes were "intended to send a very clear signal

"We are exercising our right to self-defense" - PM Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin

(that) either Arafat... will fight terrorism or we will have to do it," Raanan Gissin, spokesman to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, told CNN. Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said that the intention of the attacks was "not to bring about the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, but rather to point at Arafat and his responsibility" for the recent terrorist attacks that left 26 Israelis dead and more than 200 injured.

According to media reports, at least three armored vehicles entered the grounds of the Dahaniya airport, which has been mostly out of operation since the beginning of the Intifada. Palestinian sources said the IDF troops fired machine guns and damaged the runway.

"Bulldozers have started tearing up the runway," said Maj. Gen. Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh, Palestinian public security chief. "It is an act of sabotage. It is a flagrant aggression on one of the symbols of Palestinian sovereignty," he added.

The earlier attack in Gaza was also mostly symbolic, and was purposely staged during daylight hours on Monday to produce maximum deterrent effect, Maariv reported. IAF Apache and Cobra helicopters fired at least ten missiles at Arafat's seaside heliport, located near his personal headquarters in the city. The two Russian-made helicopters were destroyed, and an underground fuel depot was hit, sending huge plumes of smoke into the sky.

"It was an assault on two helicopters that [Arafat] doesn't use, but they were symbols of his mobility and freedom," said IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ron Kitri.

Palestinians reported that 17 people were injured in the missile strike, some of them seriously. The Palestinians also claimed that the IAF had struck Arafat's office and home, a charge that was emphatically denied by the IDF. Arafat was in Ramallah at the time of the attack, and declared the strike "a humiliation for the Palestinian people."

Arafat has other helicopters in Ramallah, but has not requested permission to fly in the past few days, Ha'aretz reported.

Shortly after the Gaza strike, IAF fighter planes bombed Arafat's offices in Jenin as well as the Palestinian police headquarters there. It was the third time that F-16 jets were used against Palestinian targets in the West Bank since the start of the Intifada uprising, seen by military analysts as another clear signal to Arafat regarding Israel's seriousness.

According to media reports, two jets dropped heavy bombs on the buildings, located in the center of Jenin, causing significant structural damage. The police headquarters had been partially damaged in an earlier Israeli action. Palestinian sources reported that there were no injuries in the attack as the buildings had already been evacuated.

IDF moves into Ramallah, Nablus and Tulkarm
IDF troops advanced into Palestinian-controlled territories around Ramallah, Nablus and Tulkarm overnight. Many of the positions taken during the night were ones from which the IDF had withdrawn only two weeks previously. An armored force accompanied by infantry troops took over two northern neighborhoods in El-Bireh, near Ramallah, and IDF tanks reportedly took up positions just a few hundred meters away from Arafat's offices in the city.

Armored forces and paratroopers moved into areas in southwest sections of Nablus. According to media reports, an armed Palestinian force was detected near the city during the operation. Amzad Abdel-Rahim Tubasi, 26, was reportedly killed in the ensuing gun battle with IDF troops.

The IDF attacked the Force 17 headquarters in the village of Beituniya near Ramallah. Israel Radio reported that IDF troops arrested an advisor to Arafat and Islamic Jihad activists as well as attacking several homes in the village.

IDF troops also captured a Palestinian security outpost near Iktaba, north of Tulkarm. The IDF Spokesman said the operation was intended to tighten the IDF's blockade of Tulkarm.

U.S. declares Israel has right to self-defense
"We are exercising our right to self-defense," Gissin said of the actions. "Our moves depend very much on what the Palestinian Authority will do. If they will take action, then that will not necessitate our having to take harsh steps."

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat charged that Sharon had declared "full-out, full-scale war" against the Palestinians. Arafat reportedly called on the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and other nations to press for an immediate end to the Israeli attacks.

White House Ari Fleischer declared Monday that Israel had the "right to defend itself'' but State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said that "there was no green light asked for and no green light given'' for Israel's retaliatory attacks.

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