Palestinian Police Clash With Militants

Palestinians battled Palestinians late Thursday and early today after security forces loyal to Yasser Arafat tried to arrest militants from the radical Islamic movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

At least one person, a 16-year-old, was shot to death, apparently by police, and more than 20 police officers, civilians and others were wounded as melees spread from one Gazan town to another.

The violence again raised the specter of a Palestinian civil war, long predicted if Arafat, the Palestinian Authority president, were to go after Islamic extremists--as both the international community and Israel demand.

Also Thursday, a week after the Israeli Cabinet said Yasser Arafat was “irrelevant” and broke off contact, Arab ministers retaliated by saying the Arab world would not recognize or deal with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a peace partner.

“The aggressive policies and practices of Sharon’s government . . . make the Sharon government unqualified as a partner in reaching a just and balanced peace,” said a statement released by Arab foreign ministers after an emergency Arab League meeting in Cairo.

At the United Nations, five days after the United States vetoed a Palestinian-backed Security Council resolution calling for monitoring Israeli actions, Palestinian supporters put their case to the larger General Assembly and won overwhelming approval. The assembly vote has no binding authority but carries the weight of international opinion.

Thursday’s fighting in Gaza began before dawn when Palestinian police arrived at the home of Abdulaziz Rantisi, a senior Hamas leader, in Gaza City’s Sheik Radwan neighborhood. Rantisi’s supporters immediately surrounded the home and opened fire to drive the police back. The officers responded with tear gas before retreating.

On Thursday night, Palestinian police again tried to move in on Rantisi, and again they fought with Hamas militants. As that outbreak was being put down, Palestinian police pursued a cell of Hamas fighters who were trying to fire mortars at nearby Jewish settlements, witnesses said.

The police chased the mortar squad into Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp, and hundreds of residents and Islamic militants poured into the streets to fight off the police. Most of the casualties Thursday came from the Jabaliya fighting.

The Palestinian Authority forces succeeded in arresting five suspected Hamas militants. But Rantisi remained ensconced in his home. Armed supporters were positioned at nearby intersections early today, and police formed a second cordon around them.