The UN Security Council will meet late tonight to discuss a Palestinian request for an emergency meeting after Israeli forces destroyed the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) headquarters in the West Bank.
Only PLO leader Mr Yasser Arafat's offices remain standing this evening after Israeli tanks and bulldozers responded with force to yesterday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
A policeman in Mr Arafat's office building was shot dead by a sniper, and two other Palestinians, including a woman, were killed during retaliatory Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip.
In a letter to the council, the Palestinian observer to the United Nations, Mr Nasser Al-Kidwa, urged said immediate measures must be taken "to bring an end to the extremely dangerous situation in and around the headquarters compound."
In his letter, Kidwa said Israel was acting "in defiance of international law, international humanitarian law and Security Council resolutions."
The governments of two permanent council members, Russia and France, issued statements in their capitals protesting at Israel's decision to reimpose the blockade. And Mr Arafat has received messages of support form Arab leaders including Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.
The army, using tanks and bulldozers, took over the Ramallah compound late last night after an emergency cabinet meeting decided to `isolate' Mr Arafat.
The cabinet demanded the surrender of 20 Palestinians wanted for alleged involvement in attacks and said to be holed up with the Palestinian leader in his offices.
Two of Arafat's bodyguards were injured in exchanges of fire in the early stages of the raid and 23 Palestinians were taken prisoner by troops, Palestinian security sources said.
The army then systematically demolished all the buildings in the compound.
Several explosions, including one very large blast, were heard, sending huge clouds of smoke and dust into the air.
Within hours all the compound buildings, which housed several Palestinian security bases and the interior ministry, a garage for Mr Arafat's cars, a jail and dormitories, had been torn down, leaving Mr Arafat's personal quarters the only building still standing.
The policeman was killed as he stood at a window in Arafat's offices, Palestinian security sources said, and his body was only evacuated to a Ramallah hospital several hours later.
The Israeli government acted after a suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in Tel Aviv, killing five people as well as himself and injuring 60, 10 of them seriously.
A Scottish teenager who was critically injured died of his wounds today, bringing the death toll for the attack to six plus the bomber, hospital sources said.
The attack, the second in 24 hours following a six-week lull in the wake of Israel's reoccupation of the West Bank, was claimed by the armed wing of the radical Islamic movement Hamas, which vowed that more would follow.
Israel besieged Arafat's headquarters for five weeks after another suicide bombing triggered an invasion of the West Bank last March. It was only lifted after US and British mediators negotiated the imprisonment, under international guard, of six Palestinians who had been holed up inside the compound.
Those being sought this time include West Bank intelligence chief Mr Tawfiq Tirawi and the commander of Arafat's Force 17 bodyguard, Mr Mahmud Damra.
However Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer stressed that harming Arafat himself or expelling him was not an option.
Also overnight the Israeli army made incursions into the Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinians, a 25-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man, in the village of Tufah, hospital sources said.
The army dynamited several metal workshops in the area in the north of the strip, Palestinians security sources said. Israel believes these workshops are used by militants to manufacture mortars and rockets.
The army also moved into Al-Shujayiah district on the eastern edge of Gaza City, and advanced about a mile into Palestinian land toward the towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanun, Palestinian security forces said.
PA