Located in the
Palestinian city of Ramallah in the central
West Bank, the Muqataa is a compound housing the
Palestinian Authority (PA)'s government offices. During the April 2002
Israeli military incursion, the Israeli army raided the compound, shelled and bulldozed a large section of it, and placed it under siege in an attempt to isolate PA President
Yasser Arafat. The siege was a response to the
Second Intifada amid Israeli claims that Arafat and others in the PA were supporting terrorism. Arafat was held under house arrest at the compound from April 2002-October 2004, after which he was flown to Paris, France for medical treatment, where he died on November 11, the cause of which remains controversial. The Muqataa is also now the site of Arafat's tomb. See "
Inside Arafat's compound of rubble," BBC, September 22, 2002; and "
Arafat mausoleum opened by Abbas," BBC, November 10, 2007.