ISRAEL maintained its siege of Yasser Arafat's headquarters for a seventh day, defying a call by the U.N. Security Council to end operations there and withdraw from Palestinian cities.

　　Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel would not comply with the resolution because the Palestinians are not meeting the council's demands to halt attacks on Israelis and arrest those responsible. ``We cannot fulfill our part (of the resolution) because the other part will not be fulfilled,'' he told foreign diplomats.

　　Israel says it will not withdraw from the compound until about 200 people holed up inside surrender.

　　Palestinians took heart from the U.N. resolution. Arafat released a statement praising it, and Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said it should be enforced, "because Israel is the champion of nations undermining Security Council resolutions and not implementing" them.

　　Telephone lines to Arafat's building were cut Tuesday, Palestinians said, leaving Arafat and his aides with only cellular phones to communicate with the outside world. Israel's army denied any knowledge of the cut lines.

　　Also yesterday, Palestinian security officials said that 18 Palestinians, many of them members of the security forces, have recently been arrested as suspected informers who helped Israel kill wanted militiamen. Eleven of the men were to be put on trial soon, said Maj. Gen. Moussa Arafat, head of military intelligence.

　　In the southern West Bank, Israeli troops blew up three houses yesterday, including one belonging to the leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas in the town of Hebron, Abdel Khaled Natche,Palestinian witnesses said. Soldiers gave family members 10 minutes to remove a few belongings before a huge explosion leveled the two-story structure, scattering rubble in all directions. (SD-Agencies)