CAIRO - In a series of blunt comments, Suha Arafat, the wife of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, said she hates Israel, opposes normal relations with Israelis and believes Mideast peace is unobtainable at present.

Suha Arafat, who rarely speaks publicly, said in an interview with the Saudi Arabian woman's magazine, Sayidaty, that she has rejected contacts with Israeli delegations representing social institutions since Israelis are responsible for the problems our children have.

"I have always rejected normalizing relations with [Israeli] women," she was quoted as saying by the magazine.

"They always invite me to their functions and I categorically refuse because I hate Israel."

Amid the current Mideast bloodletting, she also declared that "peace with them [Israelis] is a lie."

"I have always had the inner conviction that it wouldn't succeed," she added. "Thus I rejected any proposal for cooperation."

Arafat spends most of her time in Paris with the couple's daughter, Zahwa, and said she fears the Israelis are tracking them.

She said Israeli bullets hit the Arafat residence in Gaza City during one recent attack by Israeli helicopters, when the family was not present. Windows at the home were shattered.

"I know my daughter and I are a political target," said Arafat, who converted from Christianity to Islam when she married the Palestinian leader. "For that reason I move from place to place. But I am not afraid."

Suha Arafat has kept a low profile since a controversial 1999 meeting with then-U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton in the West Bank during which the Palestinian first lady said that IDF troops used poison gas on Palestinians that led to an increase in cancer cases among Palestinian women and children.

The comments caused a stir in Israel and the United States. Clinton did not comment on the remarks at the time. But later she denounced Arafat's comments, saying they were not conducive to the peace process.

Asked about her husband's health, Arafat said he has no health problems.

Several years ago the Palestinian leader developed noticeable tremors in his lower lip, and media reports have speculated that he suffers from Parkinson's disease, a progressive neurological ailment.

But Arafat said the uncontrollable shaking is a result of fatigue and exhaustion.

"He's under a lot of work-related stress, and he's constantly traveling from one country to the other," Arafat was quoted as saying.

Pictures in the Saudi publication show Arafat in a traditional embroidered Palestinian dress, ironing the type of black-and-white checkered headdress that is the trademark of her husband.

(c) 2001 Ha'aretz