Palestinian leaders in power fight

A Palestinian youth throws stones at an Israeli tank during clashes in the West Bank city of Nablus on Saturday. Palestinian militants have renewed attacks on Israelis, especially in the Gaza Strip, while Israel waged military reprisals after a suicide bombing. PHOTO: REUTERS

Palestinian were locked in a power struggle yesterday, officials said, triggered by Yasser Arafat's attempt to hand control over all the security forces to a loyalist in apparent hope of sidelining the US-backed Palestinian security chief.

The current security chief, Mohammed Dahlan, is supported by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, whom Arafat has repeatedly tried to undermine since appointing him in April under US pressure.

International now want Arafat to relinquish control of the security forces and allow Abbas and Dahlan to clamp down on militants, in response to a Hamas bus bombing that killed 21 people in Jerusalem last week. Arafat continues to command several of the security branches, while Abbas and Dahlan supervise the rest.

Instead giving up control over armed men, Arafat proposed on Saturday to pass the supreme command to Nasser Yousef, a staunch Arafat loyalist. Such an appointment would effectively sideline Dahlan.

Palestinian meanwhile, fired a new, longer-range rocket into Israel on Sunday, the army said. The rocket, which landed less than a kilometer from the Israeli city of Ashkelon, fell on a beach, just 10m from an unmanned lifeguard post, the army said.

The militants fired the rocket from an area of the Gaza Strip that allowed them to target Ashkelon, rather than the much smaller Israeli town of Sderot, which had previously been the target of Qassam rockets, the army said.

The rocket was fired just hours after Dahlan's forces began arresting weapons smugglers in the Gaza Strip, seizing weapons and detaining at least a dozen suspects on Saturday. Dahlan's forces also sealed off two tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt to the Gaza Strip.

If Yousef is appointed interior minister, Dahlan will become irrelevant, a Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity. And if Yousef takes over, Arafat will retain effective control over the security forces, the official said, something the Americans and the Israelis oppose.

The official said he doubted the initiative would be approved by the central committee of the ruling Fatah faction. A meeting of the committee scheduled for later yesterday was canceled for reasons that remained unclear.

A main Palestinian obligation, according to a US-backed peace initiative, is to dismantle militant groups.

Yousef, who is one of the oldest members of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was part of a senior guard who spent the 1980s in exile with Arafat in Tunis and Lebanon. In 1994, when the Palestinian Authority was established, Yousef was a senior police commander.

Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr denied Israeli media reports that Dahlan and Abbas are threatening to resign.

"There is a small crisis now about how we will strengthen the unity of our security forces ... and how the Palestinians will enforce the willingness of the authority and the rule of law," Amr told Israel's Army Radio.

"We want to unify our security forces under one title, under one address," Amr said.

According to officials who attended Saturday's meeting, Abbas was initially vehemently opposed to Yousef's appointment.

If approved by the Fatah central committee, the nomination would move to the Palestinian Legislative Council, which has to approve all Cabinet postings.

Israel for Tuesday's bus bombing with a helicopter missile strike that killed Ismail Abu Shanab, a Hamas leader.

After Abu Shanab's killing a ceasefire declared by militant groups on June 29 collapsed. Abbas came under even greater pressure to rein in militants, something he is reluctant to do for fear it will spark internal fighting.

Without Arafat's cooperation, a clampdown would be even more difficult, Amr said, noting that US Secretary of State Colin Powell made a similar statement after the bus bombing.

In a rare call on Arafat -- whom the US has ignored for months -- Powell called on the Palestinian leader last week to hand over control of his security forces to Dahlan so he would be able to effectively fight terrorism.