Around 20,000 Palestinians marched in the Gaza Strip on Thursday against new threats on the life of President Yasser Arafat by his arch-foe, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Arafat, 74, speaking by phone relay from his West Bank headquarters to the latest and biggest in a series of protests against Sharon's threat, again declared that he had no fear of whatever the Israeli leader might do.
"My life is not more dear to me than that of any Palestinian boy or a girl. We're all martyrs in the making in defence of our holy Muslim and Christian places," said Arafat, largely confined to his half-wrecked compound by Israeli forces since late 2001.
"There will be no retreat from (the drive to) achieve independence, freedom and an independent state" despite continued Israeli military incursions against Palestinian militants and assassinations of their leaders, he said.
Sharon said last Friday he no longer felt bound by a pledge he made in 2001 to US President George W. Bush not to harm Arafat. His remarks aimed to rally support in his right-wing Likud party for his plan to withdraw settlers from Gaza.
"There is no place for Israeli occupation in our Palestinian land. There is no place for Israeli settlement," Arafat said. "There is no place for their racist wall," he added, referring to a barrier Israel is building around West Bank settlements.
Protesters cheered, waving posters of Arafat and Palestinian flags. "We will sacrifice our blood and souls for Abu Ammar," they chanted, using Arafat's nom de guerre.
Representatives of various Palestinian factions, including Islamist militants, attended the rally that ended outside Arafat's empty Gaza headquarters on a Mediterranean beachfront.
"Any attempt to harm our symbol and our leader will only lead to the destruction of any peace process and to a lack of security and stability in the whole region," Arafat aide Tayeb Abdel-Rahim told reporters at the rally.
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