Palestinians Kill Israeli in Gaza Ambush : Mideast: Attack on truck convoy is expected to further strain relations between Israel and Arafat.

Palestinian gunmen ambushed a convoy of Israeli gasoline tankers in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing one Israeli security guard and wounding a second, in a direct challenge to both Israel and the PLO, which administers the region.

The guerrillas approached the private Israeli security vehicle as it escorted two gasoline tankers into the Gaza Strip, firing automatic rifles at it, according to Israeli military sources. Palestinian police, who were also protecting the trucks, fired back, but the gunmen escaped into a citrus grove.

The dead security guard, Yevgeny Dromov, 32, was a new immigrant from Russia; his companion, Yoni Ben Shabatt, was reported to be in critical condition.

The midmorning attack at the Nahal Oz crossing from Israel into the Gaza Strip underscored PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat’s loss of control in the region, and it appeared certain to further strain his relations with Israel, which wants him to crack down on Islamic militants.

The militia of the fundamentalist Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, said it carried out the attack, but the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another radical group opposed to the Palestine Liberation Organization’s peace accord with Israel, made a similar claim.

Arafat warned the radicals that the PLO is determined to defend the Gaza and Jericho self-rule agreement it signed with Israel in September, 1993, and is now trying to extend to the rest of the West Bank.

“They want to squeeze the Palestinian people in the corner and to destroy the peace process,” Arafat said in an angry speech to high school students in Gaza City. “They are playing dirty work against their people, against the Palestinian people and against the peace process. . . . These criminal attempts will not pass without punishment.”

Arafat is under intense pressure to curb attacks against Israelis before Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin will agree to expand self-government to the West Bank and pull back Israeli forces there as required under the 1993 accord. The two leaders plan to meet Thursday in Gaza to continue their negotiations.

Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Mordechai Gur warned after the attack that Arafat must act against the militants to maintain his authority in Gaza as well as his credibility with the Israelis.

“If Arafat does not do this, he raises doubts about his ability to do what he committed himself to do in the Oslo agreement,” Gur said. “If he cannot stick to the agreement, then we don’t have to stick to all the details.

“This act is a clear-cut attack on the Palestinian capacity to advance the peace process and a slap in the face of those who are holding talks with us, namely Arafat. The responsibility for this matter is, nevertheless, Arafat’s. With him we signed the Oslo agreement, and he must find a way to overcome this.”

The attack followed the Jan. 22 suicide bombing by two guerrillas belonging to Islamic Jihad, another radical group from Gaza, that killed 21 Israelis, most of them young soldiers, at a military mustering point in central Israel.

That bombing prompted Rabin to close the Gaza Strip and West Bank, barring tens of thousands of Palestinians from going to jobs in Israel. Israel’s Cabinet eased the restrictions slightly Sunday, and Rabin plans to discuss further moves with Arafat on Thursday.

Israeli Environment Minister Yossi Sarid, a member of the leftist Meretz Party, said Monday that he favors closing the West Bank and Gaza Strip permanently but proposed that Israel compensate the Palestinian Authority for the loss of workers’ revenues.

“We’ll buy more security for Israel for this particular sum of money,” Sarid said, promoting his idea of paying the Palestinians about $333 million a year.