Gaza Police Chief Freed After Kidnapping

Palestinian gunmen abducted the Gaza Strip’s police chief and paraded him through the streets of a refugee camp Friday before freeing him unharmed several hours later. Four French nationals identified as aid workers were briefly held in a separate incident but were also freed unharmed.

Palestinian officials declared a state of emergency in Gaza early today after the abductions, which appeared to be a challenge to the authority of Yasser Arafat.

Two top Palestinian security officials submitted their resignations over the incidents, news reports said, and the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Korei was to hold an emergency session today to discuss the deteriorating security situation.

Lawlessness and political schisms have been on the rise in Gaza in the months since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unveiled a plan to withdraw Jewish settlers and troops from the strip. The authority of Palestinian Authority President Arafat, whom Israel has not allowed into Gaza in more than two years, has been steadily crumbling while the influence of militant groups has increased.

The police chief, Ghazi Jabali, was unharmed in an ambush of his car on a highway outside Gaza City on Friday afternoon, but two of his bodyguards were injured.

Witnesses said the gunmen paraded Jabali through the streets of the Bureij refugee camp before a jeering crowd and shouted that he had confessed to embezzling funds.

Jabali, who has a reputation as a ruthless enforcer, is allied with Arafat’s Fatah faction, which is in a power struggle in Gaza with other elements of the Palestinian Authority and various militant groups.

Fatah officials said they had secured Jabali’s release, but they gave no details. Palestinian news reports, however, said Arafat had agreed to either dismiss Jabali or try him for corruption in exchange for his freedom.

The French Consulate in Jerusalem said early today that four French nationals and a Palestinian co-worker were released and in good condition after being detained by armed men for about four hours in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis.

Gaza, never orderly, has been in a state of growing chaos in recent months, as Sharon has tried to push through his plan to withdraw from Gaza by the end of next year. Militant groups such as Hamas are doing their best to bloody Israel before then so they can claim to have driven out its army.

Jabali is known to be locked in rivalry with Mohammed Dahlan, a former Palestinian Authority security chief considered a major power broker in Gaza. Gunmen loyal to Dahlan are believed responsible for a shootout at Jabali’s office this year that left a police officer dead.

Israeli officials hold little sympathy for Jabali.

“He’s a typical mafia guy,” said Raanan Gissin, an advisor to Sharon. “The man’s a rascal, a womanizer, an extortionist -- he’s the epitome of what’s sick in the Palestinian Authority. So this is a message to Arafat, a shot across the bow.”

Reform of the Palestinian security forces has been a key demand of the Bush administration. Jabali’s abduction, however, appeared to represent something less than a clear-cut call for reform.

Palestinian reports said his loyalists had been feuding with a group known as the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committee. A related group calling itself the Jenin Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the abduction. A purported spokesman for the faction told Al Jazeera satellite television that Jabali was being “held accountable for his crimes against our people.”

Hours after Jabali was seized, another top Palestinian security official was abducted. He was identified as Khaled abu Alula, director of military coordination in southern Gaza. Alula had reportedly refused demands by recently fired Palestinian policemen that they be reinstated.

There was no word on his fate early today.

Palestinian officials said Gaza’s preventive security chief, Rashid abu Shbak, and intelligence chief, Amin Hindi, had resigned. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the men were angered by the deal to secure Jabali’s freedom.

It was unclear what the state of emergency in Gaza would entail. Palestinian news reports said security would be stepped up around public buildings and police leaves canceled.