Palestinians See Unity as Key to Post-Arafat Era

Senior Palestinian officials seeking to prevent a void when Yasser Arafat dies reached out Saturday to Islamic militants who remain the wild card in a post-Arafat era.

Tacitly acknowledging that planning for life after Arafat has begun, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Korei made a rare visit to the Gaza Strip, where he convened senior security officers and leaders of rival militant factions, including the radical organization Hamas.

The decisions and positions of Hamas, one of the deadliest Palestinian groups, are key to whether the transition to new leadership after Arafat is peaceful or bloody.

In Ramallah, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, a new round of consultations took place Saturday among officials from the Palestinians’ most influential governing body, the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

All of the activity was aimed at presenting a united front and keeping a lid on internecine violence, something officials have been keen to do since Arafat fell ill and was evacuated from his battered headquarters here.

“We are talking about national unity, in all its forms, including participation in decision-making,” Korei, known as Abu Alaa, said after the largely symbolic meeting with 13 factions in Gaza City. Although he and others indicated that Hamas would be welcomed into a future government, he offered no specifics on how that would be achieved.

There was no fresh news Saturday on Arafat. The 75-year-old leader remained in critical condition at a French military hospital near Paris. Neither hospital officials nor Arafat’s tight circle of family and aides shed light on the ailment that appears to be killing him.

Gen. Christian Estripeau, the physician authorized by Palestinians to speak on the matter, simply said Arafat’s health had not worsened.

“He’s in critical condition. He’s not improving, and that’s what is really causing our anxiety,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told Associated Press Television News in Gaza. “We don’t have a proper diagnosis yet.”

In Gaza, Korei swept into town under heavy Palestinian guard. He was accompanied by parliament Speaker Rouhi Fatouh, who will step in as a caretaker president of the Palestinian Authority if Arafat dies. The two men listened to demands from Hamas and other groups for a role in the future leadership of the Palestinian Authority.

Gaza, a teeming, impoverished strip of land squeezed against the sea, is vital to post-Arafat planning because it already has grown chaotic in advance of a possible Israeli pullout of Jewish settlers and troops. Rival gunmen, including police, have been jockeying for position and power and fighting in the streets, a struggle that could worsen if Arafat dies.

Hamas may initially lie low to further an image of Palestinian unity and to secure a seat at the leadership table, analysts said. But the group, responsible for many of the suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis in recent years, has not agreed to a cease-fire in the event of Arafat’s death.

“We are passing through a critical time,” Hamas spokesman Sami abu Zuhri said. He said that Korei had agreed to “study the mechanism” for bringing Hamas into the government.

Any formal participation by Hamas in a Palestinian government would surely outrage Israel, to whose destruction Hamas is dedicated, and the United States, which regards the organization as a terrorist group.

But Saturday’s statements had to be taken with a grain of salt. Rather than making a firm commitment, Korei appeared more intent on heading off a succession battle, reassuring his people and warning Israelis that the Palestinian Authority is not vulnerable with Arafat absent.

Israel has greatly weakened Hamas by assassinating a string of its top leaders, including spiritual founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin. But Hamas still commands the loyalty of tens of thousands of Palestinians.

More significant than his reunion with the factions was that Korei met secretly late Saturday with one of the surviving Hamas leaders, Ismail Haniyeh, witnesses said.

Speculation continued Saturday on where Arafat would be laid to rest. Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian Cabinet minister, denied in Ramallah that Israel and the Palestinians were negotiating over a site.

Arafat is known to want to be buried in Jerusalem, something the Israelis have vehemently ruled out.

Erekat denounced as “really unacceptable” comments a day earlier by Israeli Justice Minister Tommy Lapid, who said Arafat could not be laid to rest in Jerusalem because the holy city is “where Jewish kings are buried, not Arab terrorists.”

Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians on Saturday -- including two members of Islamic Jihad who the army said were armed and approaching a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, and a 14-year-old boy in the northern West Bank town of Jenin.

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Wilkinson reported from Jerusalem and Ellingwood from Ramallah. Times special correspondent Fayed abu Shammalah in Gaza City contributed to this report.