GAZA CITY Ñ Fatah dissidents have continued attacks on Palestinian
Authority facilities in the Gaza Strip.
Fatah gunmen attacked PA police stations and government installations
over the weekend. At least two facilities were vandalized or torched.
On Saturday, 12 Fatah insurgents commandeered and vandalized the PA
headquarters in Khan
Yunis. After five hours, the insurgents left the building.
At the same time, Fatah gunmen attacked a police facility in the village
of Zweideh in the southern
Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources said the building was torched.
Fatah dissidents have been attacking PA facilities as part of a power
struggle in the Gaza Strip. The dissidents have demanded the dismissal of
the nephew of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, Mussa Arafat, security chief in the
Gaza Strip.
"The dispute is not with President Arafat, but with the system of
corruption," former PA Security Minister Mohammed Dahlan, believed to be
directing the unrest, said.
On July 22, thousands of Fatah dissidents protested the appointment of
Mussa as the security chief of the Gaza Strip. They accused Mussa of
corruption.
"Prosecute the symbols of corruption before the people prosecute them,"
the marchers chanted.
Speakers charged Mussa with a list of offenses. They included
collaboration with Jordan during the kingdom's offensive against Fatah in
1970, in which an estimated 5,000 Palestinians were killed. He was also
accused of being in contact with Israeli intelligence.
In the West Bank, Israel's military was said to have foiled a suicide
bombing at a fuel station in the Jordan Valley. Israeli troops arrested
three suspected insurgents of Islamic Jihad and seized a 15-kilogram bomb.