Palestinian militants beat and briefly held the governor of a West Bank town Saturday, raising tensions with Palestinian authorities under heavy Israeli pressure to crack down on armed groups.
Shortly after the governor's release, the office of Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan issued a statement saying the government had started "a large-scale campaign" to bring law and order to the Gaza Strip.
The statement gave no specifics on what had been done or what was planned, but the militant Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or DFLP, said Palestinian police Saturday had arrested two of its members in Gaza.
The attack on Jenin Governor Haider Irsheid by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade came ahead of an expected meeting yesterday of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to work on a US-backed peace plan, which is stalled despite a three-week truce declared by militant groups.
Al Aqsa's leader in Jenin, Zakariye Zubeydi, demanded that the Palestinian Authority put Irsheid on trial for collaborating with Israel and being involved in a failed attempt to kill an Al Aqsa member on Friday.
But the militants freed Irsheid about five hours later, after a call from an unidentified official at Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's office. Al Aqsa is loosely affiliated with Arafat's Fatah movement.
"For me, Arafat's order is not up for negotiation, so I released him immediately," Zubeydi said, adding that he would leave the responsibility for judging Irsheid to Arafat.
The attack on Irsheid follows months of tensions between militants and the governor, who townspeople say has worked well with Israeli authorities.
Eyewitnesses said gunmen pulled Irsheid, 50, from his van and beat him with their fists and gun butts before bundling him into another vehicle and driving off toward the city's refugee camp. He suffered bruises on his face and neck, witnesses said.
There is practically no Palestinian police presence in Jenin or the adjacent refugee camp, a militant stronghold. Israel has effectively controlled Jenin and most other West Bank towns for over a year, but does not maintain a constant presence there, keeping troops just outside the town.
The release illustrated the authority Arafat still wields despite a power-sharing agreement with Abbas. The two have wrangled over how to proceed in negotiations with Israel, and Arafat has worked to limit Abbas' influence.
Israel refuses to deal with Arafat, blaming him for the violence of the past three years, but has worked openly with Abbas. After the expected meeting with Sharon, Abbas travels to Washington for a meeting with US President George W. Bush on July 25. Sharon meets Bush on July 29.
In Rome, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told reporters that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi would go to the Middle East soon for talks with Arafat and Abbas. Berlusconi's office said they had no immediate information on the visit. In June, Berlusconi met in Israel with Sharon and President Moshe Katsav, but avoided Arafat.
The Jenin kidnapping comes as Israel is demanding Palestinian authorities disarm militant groups responsible for suicide bombings and shootings that have killed hundreds of Israelis in 33 months of violence. Palestinians fear that could spark civil war and have said they would try to convince the militants to disarm.
Before Irsheid's release, however, Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr condemned the abduction and said action would be taken. "This type of behavior will not be allowed," Amr said.
The attack comes ahead of a week of diplomatic activity on behalf of the "road map" peace plan, which calls for an end to violence and steps leading to the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
Palestinian officials say Abbas and Sharon were to meet yesterday, though Israel has not yet confirmed the timing. It would be the first time the two have met since July 1.
A truce called by militant groups on June 29 has substantially reduced the violence, but progress on the road map has been blocked by disagreement over what steps to take next.
Israel pulled troops out of parts of Gaza and the West Bank town of Bethlehem two weeks ago, but conditions further pullbacks on a crackdown on militants. A senior official in Sharon's office said Saturday that Arafat's enduring influence with Palestinian security forces was stalling moves against the militants.
In the meeting with Sharon, Abbas was expected to push for a mass release of Palestinian prisoners, further Israeli withdrawals from West Bank towns and dismantlement of illegal Israeli settlement outposts.
There have been some signs of flexibility. Israel had previously said it would release only some 400 militants, but Israeli officials now say they are considering releasing more; Amr, for his part, said Saturday that he understood the prisoner releases would take time.
Still, Amr insisted the aim should be to release of all of the Palestinian prisoners, whose number is put by the International Committee of the Red Cross at 7,700.
"We expect serious and convincing proposals" on the prisoners issue in the upcoming meeting with Sharon, Amr said.
Israel argues that they cannot release large numbers of militants until the Palestinians dismantle the armed groups that would otherwise benefit from the fresh manpower.
The statement from Dahlan's office pledged to crackdown on groups holding illegal guns, citing the case of a woman in Nablus who was killed earlier this week when a gunman sprayed a street with bullets during a kidnapping.
"The security forces of the [Palestinian Authority] would not adopt any lenient policy toward the phenomena of holding weapons illegally," the statement said.
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