'We mourn President Arafat'

2004-11-11 07:58

Ramallah - Palestinians reacted with tears and tributes to news of the death of their leader Yasser Arafat on Thursday.

Palestinian flags at Arafat's battered compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah were lowered to half-staff. Television broadcast excerpts from the Quran with a picture of Arafat in the background.

In the Gaza Strip, mosques blared Quranic verses and children burned tires on the main streets, covering the skies in black smoke. People pasted posters of Arafat on building walls.

"He closed his eyes and his big heart stopped. He left for God but he is still among this great people," said senior Arafat aide Tayeb Abdel Rahim, who broke into tears as he announced Arafat's death.

In a coma for a week

Arafat, who led the Palestinian people through four decades, died at a Paris hospital early Thursday. He had been in a coma for a week.

"We will follow in your footsteps and we will continue in your line," Abdel Rahim told reporters at Arafat's Ramallah headquarters.

Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic jihad, Arafat's main political rivals, expressed sorrow and paid tribute.

Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas's spokesperson in Gaza, called on the group's supporters to honour Arafat and work toward national unity.

"We lost by his death one of our great symbols and one of the main focuses of our national struggle and identity," Abu Zuhri told The Associated Press.

Islamic Jihad spokesperson in Gaza Nafez Azzam said "with hearts full of belief in God's will we mourn President Yasser Arafat who was a great leader for the Palestinian people."

Mourning period

The Palestinian Authority has declared a 40-day period of mourning across the Palestinian territories to mark the death of Arafat, the head of his office said on Thursday.

Private businesses are to close for three days and public institutions for seven days, but a general mourning will last for 40 days during which flags will remain at half mast and all festivals will be cancelled, Tayeb Abdelrahim said.

Reacting to his death, Israeli politicians focused on his failures, blaming him for the collapse of the peace process.

"I hated him for the deaths of Israelis ... I hated him for not allowing the peace process ... to move forward," Justice Minister Yosef Lapid told Israel Radio.

"It is one of the tragedies of the world that he didn't understand that the terror that began here would spread to the entire world," he added. - AFP

 

   

 

- AP