TEL AVIV Ñ The Iranian-backed Hizbullah has extended its influence over supporters of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, placing many on its payroll.

Israeli security sources said Arafat's ruling Fatah movement has obtained money and expertise from Hizbullah. This includes weapons and expertise in manufacturing mines and bombs.

The sources said Hizbullah has fostered agents within the Fatah movement and pays them to carry out attacks against Israel.

Many Fatah fighters seek to moonlight for Islamic cells in an effort to increase their salaries, Middle East Newsline reported. Arafat's security agents earn as little as $200 a month.

The Hizbullah effort is part of an Iranian drive to create a beachhead in the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The sources said the Fatah movement, as an institution, does not enjoy Hizbullah or Iranian financing. But they said Arafat has not stopped the Hizbullah aid to individuals.

The cooperation with Hizbullah has led to increased lethality in Palestinian attacks. On Wednesday, a Palestinian was captured as he was about to detonate a bomb in the northern Israeli city of Afula. Police overpowered the suspect, described as a suicide bomber from the West Bank city of Jenin.

It was said to be the first time Israel has captured a suicide bomber as he was about to blow himself up.

At the same time, authorities said they arrested whom they termed was a terror cell of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians financed by the Hizbullah. The six-member cell was said to have killed two Israelis as part of initiation rites to enter the Hizbullah-sponsored group based in Jordan. Another four suspects were said to have escaped to the Palestinian areas.

On Wednesday, Israeli officials confirmed and Palestinian Authority officials denied a report in the Israeli Maariv daily that PA Chairman Yasser Arafat has ordered his forces to kill Jewish settlers daily. Arafat was said to have told his security chiefs to ignore his pledges to implement a ceasefire in the war with Israel.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, rival Palestinian factions battled overnight Thursday. Security sources said two Palestinians were killed and nine injured in internecine fighting between two leading families.

On Thursday, an Israeli settler was seriously injured and his wife and child lightly injured when Palestinians fired at their car in an ambush near the Jewish settlement of Har Braha close to Nablus. In a drive-by shooting near the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba next to Hebron an Israeli settler was seriously injured and an Israeli Arab lightly injured.

In Hebron, Palestinian sources said that three Palestinians were injured when Jewish settlers opened fire them in Kiryat Arba. The Israeli military spokesman said the three were injured in clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians in Hebron on Thursday morning.

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