The Scene of the Siege

His electricity and landline phones had been cut by the Israelis, so Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was using cell and satellite phones to reach nearby staff members and relying on a generator to power the lights in his office–at least until his utilities are restored.

When the phone lines are up again, Arafat need not wonder about their being bugged–Israeli agents have been listening in for years. Israeli intelligence officials tell TIME they have had access to almost every phone call, fax or e-mail that has gone out of Arafat’s West Bank headquarters, located in a military compound called the Muqata’a in Ramallah, where he has been a virtual prisoner since December. They also claim to have human intelligence, “moles,” working the inside.

Israeli security sources say the phone and fax surveillance has supplied evidence that Arafat bankrolled groups that are part of his Fatah organization though he knew they would carry out terror attacks. But the spying came up critically short in preventing attacks, because Arafat was never told precise details of any operation, say the sources.

Arafat was certainly aware that he was a surveillance target, and sometimes, according to the Israelis, he would say things over the phone with the intention of misdirecting them. And Palestinian sources point out that all the globe-trotting Arafat used to do was necessary in part so he could hold face-to-face meetings and be assured the Israelis weren’t listening. But Arafat wasn’t always guarded. The Israeli spies not only heard the chairman’s private phone conversations but also were privy to some intense intramural squabbling. In one recent incident, Israeli agents listened in as an angry Arafat shoved his chief of Preventive Security in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan.

Until Israel relents, Arafat’s meetings are going to be less hands-on. The only comrades left at his side last week were spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeineh and a few bodyguards from his Force 17 security detail. The others vanished as the Israeli army attacked. Not everyone escaped. Five Palestinians were killed, and Israeli soldiers captured another 150, including a number from Israel’s list of wanted Palestinian militants, some of whom were trying to hide in the Muqata’a. (The Muqata’a is not unknown to the Israelis; it served as their military headquarters in Ramallah until the army withdrew in 1995.) The Israelis were especially intent on finding two of the suspected killers of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi, who was assassinated in a Jerusalem hotel in October.

The Israelis did get their hands on some interesting papers. Soldiers from the elite Egoz Battalion located Arafat’s personal files when they invaded the compound. Those documents are being analyzed by the Shin Bet domestic security service. “Now we will be able to add to what we knew about Arafat and his direct ties to terror using what we’ll find in the files,” says a senior Israeli security official. –By Bill Saporito. Reported by Matt Rees/Jerusalem