World Tribune.com

Arafat caves in to Fatah pressure

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, July 19, 2004

GAZA CITY ø After a weekend of violence, Fatah dissidents have succeeded in forcing chairman Yasser Arafat Arafat to dismiss the police chief of the Gaza Strip and that of the Palestinian Authority. chairman's nephew. The nephew, Mussa Arafat, had been appointed the de facto security chief of the Gaza Strip.

Most of the Fatah violence has taken place in Khan Yunis and Rafah. In Rafah, Fatah gunmen exchanged gunfire with officers from Mussa's Military Intelligence force.

Palestinian sources said about 150 Fatah insurgents stormed the MI facility in the southern Gaza Strip city and some of the MI officers threw down their weapons and fled. At least 18 people were injured, several of them seriously, Middle East Newsline reported.

In Khan Yunis, Fatah insurgents captured a facility operated by PA Military Intelligence. After storming the facility and expelling its officers, the Fatah dissidents released detainees and torched the building.

Fatah branch chiefs in Khan Yunis and Rafah also resigned in protest of the appointment of Mussa to head the much larger Palestinian National Forces. The appointment by the PA chairman was intended to designate Mussa the security czar in the Gaza Strip.

"There is a consensus in the Palestinian nation ø and not just in the Gaza Strip ø that what is taking place now can't continue," Sufian Abu Zeida, a senior PA official, said on Monday. "People will no longer accept what have accepted until now."

On Monday, Arafat was said to have responded to Fatah pressure to replace Mussa. The PA chairman was said to have rescinded his appointment of Mussa and restored Gen. Abdul Razik Al Majaydeh as head of the National Forces. Al Majaydeh resigned over the weekend amid the spate of Fatah abductions in the Gaza Strip. In Rafah, the chairman ordered a replacement of the MI unit in Rafah by unspecified officers from Gaza City.

Later, Palestinian sources said Mussa would remain in the Palestinian National Forces under the command of Al Majaydeh. The sources said the return of Al Majaydeh would not erode the authority of Mussa.

Israeli military sources said they expected Arafat to restore control over the Gaza Strip. They said the PA chairman has enough loyalists to overcome opposition from Fatah dissidents, believed led by former Security Minister Mohammed Dahlan.

So far, PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, Palestinian Legislative Council speaker Rawhi Fatouh and three PA security chiefs in the Gaza Strip have resigned. Arafat has not accepted their resignations.

The Fatah revolt in the Gaza Strip has not led to a suspension of Palestinian attacks against Israel. On late Sunday, Hamas gunners fired Kassam-class short-range missiles into Israel and mortars were fired toward the Israeli bloc of communities in Gush Katif.

In the West Bank, two Israeli soldiers and two Israeli civilians were injured in separate shooting incidents. One attack stemmed from Jordan and a military unit from the Hashemite kingdom tracked a Palestinian insurgency squad, killed three of its members and captured a fourth.

Earlier, Israeli security sources said a would-be Palestinian suicide bomber sent by Hamas to blow himself in a popular Jerusalem cafe changed his mind and returned to Hebron on July 11. The sources said Hamas's network in Hebron planned and recruited the bomber, identified as Malik Nasser Eddin.

The cell was said to have been led by Imad Qawasmeh, whose network was damaged by Israeli attacks. Eddin was killed in a shootout in Hebron on July 15.


Copyright © 2004 East West Services, Inc.

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