GAZA, April 16 (UPI) -- A cease-fire in the Middle East is currently impossible despite the intensive efforts of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, the top Palestinian intelligence official told United Press International Tuesday, because of the destruction wrought by the Israeli military on Yasser Arafat's security infrastructure, and the threat of further Israeli incursions.
"Instead of cooperating with the Israelis we are preparing for when they attack," Amin al-Hindi, director of general intelligence told UPI in an exclusive interview in his compound in Gaza, one of the few official buildings in Gaza not decimated by Israeli munitions.
"We are human beings here," al-Hindi went on, "everyone is thinking in the service of his family and saying let's be prepared and prepare ourselves for what would happen when the Israelis come in and invade Gaza so it is not what happened in Jenin."
Palestinians have accused Israeli soldiers of massacring civilians in Jenin, charges that have been flatly denied, but which are given apparent weight by the refusal of Israel to allow relief agencies and aid workers into the town.
Powell Tuesday continued to hold out hope of success, or at least progress, before he leaves for Cairo tomorrow.
"We are having good conversations, my staff and the Palestinian side today," he told reporters, "and I look forward to seeing the Chairman (of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat) tomorrow morning." But official Palestinian sources said the meetings have failed to make much headway.
Israeli and U.S. officials have said that Powell has floated a number of proposals to contain the current fighting. These include a possible foreign ministerial level conference; a partial ceasefire between the parties pledging non-aggression and returning to conditions prior to March 29 when the latest round of incursions began.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Israeli Television that the United States had agreed to host a regional peace conference in June.
Powell's staff on the ground has also made some suggestions including a more substantive statement from Arafat condemning attacks on civilians, reiterating one released by his office on Saturday following U.S. pressure to distance himself from a suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem.
Referring to security agreements reached last year with the Israelis, Al-Hindi said the Palestinian Authority had "assured Colin Powell of our complete commitment to security as (they) came in(to force)." But he added that this commitment would only be "according to our capabilities, capabilities which have been destroyed by Sharon, and on the condition that there is an unconditional withdrawal."
In Gaza, one of al-Hindi's aides, Mamdouh Fadel al-Borno showed UPI where security and police buildings used to stand until they were reduced to piles of cinder and twisted iron.
The old intelligence building is a shell of a structure, destroyed by a U.S.-built Israeli F-16 last month while al-Hindi and his deputies were there for what the intelligence chief called a "preventive security meeting."
"I felt afraid, the fear filled me up," al-Hindi said of the day when he nearly lost his life. He said he saw a five year-old child catapulted on to the hood of his car after the explosion.
Later al-Borno drives around the perimeter of what used to be the Yasser Arafat Police Academy, another target of Israeli strikes. Inside what used to be a compound that housed Arafat's personal security guards stands a single Palestinian flag erected on the edge of a crater left by a missile from a U.S.-supplied Apache helicopter.
Throughout Gaza these scrap heaps that were once the infrastructure of Palestinian security standout because many of the buildings beside them are left untouched. Al-Hindi said, "They deliberately targeted these buildings, buildings that were built by America and other countries."
Powell will meet Arafat on Wednesday in his compound in Ramallah -- where the Palestinian leader remains besieged -- and then travel to Cairo to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, State Department officials said Tuesday.
The Wednesday visit would be Powell's second stop in Cairo since he came to the region last week. He met Mubarak last Tuesday.
Powell was to brief Mubarak on talks he held separately with Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during the last several days.
Following his stop in Cairo, Powell will return to the United States, U.S. officials said.
In Washington late Tuesday, President George W. Bush waived a law that forbids the United States from doing business with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
"It is important to the national interests of the United States to waive the provisions of section 1003 of the anti-terrorism act of 1987," said the short order issued by the White House.
The order is valid for six months after which the president will have to issue another waiver.
Section 1003 of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 "prohibits to receive anything of value from, expend funds from, or establish an office for the PLO."
Such waivers have been issued regularly for the last several years and is the second issued by President Bush.
