Gaza Protests Target New Security Chief

Palestinian leaders struggled Sunday to resolve the political confusion triggered by the prime minister’s attempt to resign, as fresh unrest erupted in the Gaza Strip over Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s decision to grant a cousin expanded powers by appointing him chief of security.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Arafat met with disgruntled Prime Minister Ahmed Korei and again rejected his resignation, submitted the day before, according to Saeb Erekat, a Cabinet minister.

Earlier Sunday, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip burned down an outpost belonging to a Palestinian Authority military intelligence service amid anger over Moussa Arafat being granted broad authority over security services as part of a sudden shake-up.

In another incident late in the day, Israeli television reported, militants in Rafah in southern Gaza stormed a compound belonging to the intelligence service, which Moussa Arafat headed before being named security chief Saturday. Israel Radio reported at least 18 people injured.

During Sunday’s meeting of the Palestinian National Security Council, Erekat said, Yasser Arafat “rejected totally” the resignation offered by Korei, who had cited the worsening chaos in the Gaza Strip and within the Palestinian security forces.

The session was followed by a gathering of Palestinian leaders, including some from Arafat’s dominant Fatah movement, whose younger members have grown increasingly restive over misrule and Arafat’s tight grip on the government and security forces.

The future of the Palestinian government may become clearer after a Cabinet meeting today. One possibility is that Arafat might allow Korei to form a new Cabinet after shedding members the prime minister sees as obstructions to reforms he has sought unsuccessfully.

Hani Hassan, a Fatah leader and close Arafat ally, said Korei would continue serving for now and was invited to suggest names for a new Cabinet.

Korei’s effort to quit came after two Palestinian security officials, including the police chief of the Gaza Strip, and four French nationals were briefly abducted Friday by Palestinian militants.

“We have a major crisis,” Erekat told reporters Sunday. “The lawlessness we witnessed in our streets must come to an end. Every effort is being exerted to restore public order.”

The political turmoil comes as Israel is making plans to remove Jewish settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip by the end of next year, creating the prospect of a power vacuum there.

Armed Palestinian groups have stepped up activities in Gaza since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon first proposed the evacuation plan, which calls for a phased withdrawal from all 21 of the territory’s settlements and four others in the West Bank.

Israel’s possible departure also has highlighted fissures within Palestinian politics, already rife with personal rivalries and disenchantment over corruption and cronyism in the decade-old Palestinian Authority, which was formed as part of the 1993 Oslo accords.

Anger erupted over the designation of Moussa Arafat as security chief -- part of a broader move by the Palestinian president to regroup a hodgepodge of a dozen police agencies into three branches. Detractors view Moussa Arafat as corrupt.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade said its militants had burned down the intelligence services outpost in a refugee camp in Khan Yunis, near Rafah. In a statement, the militant group, an armed offshoot of Fatah, called on Moussa Arafat to leave the job to someone with “a clean hand.”

Later Sunday, the head of the Palestinian naval forces, Juma Ghali, quit in protest. Other Palestinian officials expressed dissatisfaction with what they saw as insufficient reform efforts by Yasser Arafat.

“I don’t think these so-called reforms are adequate,” said Ziad abu Amr, a Palestinian legislator in Gaza City who favors broad changes. “There are no clear criteria here. The president should have made it clear why he is undertaking these measures. Is it part of a reform or an attempt to restore order?”

Moussa Arafat rejected calls for his ouster.

The Palestinian president has stubbornly resisted loosening his hold on the security forces, snubbing calls for reform from the United States and the other sponsors of an initiative known as the road map to peace.

Some Palestinian officials said the reorganization, which involves about 40,000 security personnel, was a promising start.

“The reforms announced yesterday are a step in the right direction on which we ought to build,” said Kadoura Fares, a Palestinian Cabinet member.

Fares said Palestinian support for Yasser Arafat remained strong. He said Israel’s decision to leave Gaza without a negotiated settlement would not produce calm.

Sharon, who has not met with his Palestinian counterpart since Korei took office last fall, said Sunday that the turmoil in the Gaza Strip showed there was no responsible party with whom to conduct talks.

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Special correspondent Maher Abukhater in Ramallah contributed to this report.