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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 6, 2002)
Israeli soldiers storm Ramallah By Vincent J. Schodoiski Chicago Tribune MEGIDDO JUNCTION, Israel — Israeli troops stormed the West Bank compound of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat early Thursday, a day after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 17 people aboard a commuter bus in northern Israel. Gunfire resounded as Israeli tanks entered Ramallah, and Pales tinian sources reported casualties at Arafat’s compound. “He’s safe, but there was heavy shelling, heavy shooting,” Palestin ian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said of Arafat. The Israeli raid came after a young man from Jenin, said to be 16 years old, drove a car laden with explo sives into an Israeli commuter bus at rush hour Wednesday morning and set off a devastating explosion. Dozens of people were wounded. Thirteen of the dead were young Israeli soldiers headed to bases in the Galilee region. The car rammed the bus, which was headed north from Tel Aviv, just in front of Megiddo Prison, where hundreds of Palestinians are being held, Israeli radio reported. The militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the at tack, the deadliest since Israel end ed its six-week military sweep in the West Bank last month. Islamic Jihad called the bombing “a response to the crimes of the Is raeli aggression.” It said the attack was timed to coincide with the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast war, during which Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the terri tory that Palestinians demand make up the core of an independent state. Within hours of the terrorist act, Israel sent two dozen tanks into the West Bank town of Jenin, which Islamic Jihad identified as the hometown of the assailant, Hamza Samudi. The bomber was 16, a relative said, making him one of the youngest bombers to strike Israel. Israel has long identified Jenin as a nest of terrorist cells, and the army took over the town in April and May in one of the bloodiest opera tions of the West Bank campaign. Jenin is just a few miles from the scene of Wednesday’s bus bombing. The sweep into Ramallah came in the early hours of Thursday, ex actly five weeks after U.S. interven tion helped lift a 34-day siege of Arafat at his base. Tanks and armored personnel carriers took positions outside Arafat’s office and there were ex changes of fire between soldiers and Palestinians, officials from both sides said. An Israeli armored bulldozer had begun destroying the building housing Arafat’s office, Palestinian officials said. “Arafat is not the target,” said Gideon Meir, a senior Foreign Min istry official. “What Israel is doing is the minimum that it can do as an act of self-defense after the recent terror attacks, especially yesterday’s vicious terrorist attack, which was aimed to kill innocent Israelis.” In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said administration officials were close ly monitoring the situation outside Arafat’s compound and had been in touch with both Israeli and Pales tinian officials. A senior administration official said the Israelis had indicated “they are not going after Arafat personally.” “The Israelis have acknowledged our view that we don’t think harm ing Arafat will help the situation in any way,” the official said. ©2002, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. Census continued from page 1 out of necessity. The heavily bike-, foot- and bus-bound students say they need the short campus com mute, especially those working late jobs or studying past midnight in the Knight Library. But the University is expected to admit a record number of students for the second year in a row this fall. Simultaneously, vacancy rates in the neighborhood are at record-low single-digit levels, according to Duncan and Brown, a local compa ny that studies housing trends in Eugene. Apartments are also scarce in the Duck’s Village, University Commons and Chase Village com plexes built near Autzen Stadium about two miles from campus by private companies in the late 1990s. The combination has adminis trators worried that it will be harder than ever for students to find a house or apartment in the campus’ backyard. “My impression is that next fall is going to be pretty tight,” Univer sity Housing Director Mike Eyster said. “It’s going to be a real problem in the community.” Fall enrollment is expected to sur pass 20,000, due in part to large fresh man classes over the past two years. Associate Vice President Anne Leavitt said she has already seen students heading as far as Spring field or the Whiteaker neighbor hood where the rents are lower but the commute is longer, and she said the University is working with Lane Transit District to make sure bus I routes run through student areas. Jeff Osanka, a spokesman and former chairman of the Fairmount Neighborhood Association, said many students also are heading for property east of campus. Rents is higher, but the neighborhood has fewer houses, bigger lawns and a traditional neighborhood feel. “It’s a different, quieter atmos phere,” Osanka said. “We want and welcome students to move into our neighborhood.” But many West University Neighborhood residents said the combination of campus proximity and affordable rents is an advan tage that express bus routes and larger front yards can’t trump. “Location played a huge factor, probably even more so than who I was going to be living with.” said junior Derek Bell, who will live next year with a roommate in an apartment on 18th Avenue across from Hayward Field. Bell, who spent the past two years as a resident assistant, said he would have kept his job for a third year if he couldn’t rent a place in the neighborhood. “Everyone has a car, it seems sometimes, and parking is so limit ed that it’s really hard to find a spot,” he added. Senior Martha Grover has lived in the West University Neighbor hood for almost two years and works at a market in downtown Eu gene to help pay for school. She said classes and homework con sume enough of her day, and biking two miles or waiting for the bus would be a massive inconvenience. “Basically, the only reason I live Turn to Census, page 6 2002 UO Slimmer Session Classes Begin June 24. Book Your Summer in Oregon Pick up your free summer catalog today in the Summer Session office, 333 Oregon Hall, or at the UO Bookstore. You can speed your way toward graduation by taking required courses during summer. University of Oregon Summer Session http://uosummer.uoregon.edu/ J ' w V 1 rv U t t _ 'T* ”' '7' T' T' "' T' /»' T' T' T' T' <T" T' T~ /,'“T' T^i -<r 3fr Customer Service / Sales X 50+ Years in Business Cif %fr No Experience Necessary,Training Provided >1/ $13“1450 Base-Appt. 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