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
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June 24.
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Oregon Hall, or at the UO Bookstore. You can speed your way toward
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