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 The PA chairman was said to have rescinded his appointment of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.