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Arafat kin escapes slay attempt

Gaza Strip security chief Moussa Arafat speaks with reporters in Gaza City on Tuesday after surviving a bombing directed at his motorcade. PHOTO: EPA

A top Palestinian security leader who's a relative of Yasser Arafat escaped unharmed when a car bomb exploded near his convoy in Gaza City, the latest sign of growing chaos as Israel's planned Gaza pullout nears and Israel expanded its offensive in northern Gaza that has killed scores of Palestinians.

Israel's political sphere was also in chaos on Tuesday over the Gaza plan, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon scrambled to mobilize new coalition partners to push it through a balky parliament.

The bomb blast rocked Gaza City after nightfall Tuesday, as Moussa Arafat's convoy was leaving his headquarters. Arafat was not hurt, security officials said. Israel's military denied involvement.

In a statement, Moussa Arafat called the bombing an assassination attempt, but he did not name suspects. Last year he escaped injury in an explosion in his office.

Yasser Arafat's attempt to appoint his relative as head of Gaza security in July failed after Palestinians rioted, charging that Moussa Arafat is corrupt and cruel.

Early Wednesday, Israeli troops operating in northern Gaza for the last two weeks moved into the town of Beit Lahiya for the first time, residents and military sources said. Soldiers were conducting house-to-house searches, they said.

Witnesses said an Israeli drone aircraft fired a missile at a house, killing a Hamas militant and seriously wounding three others. Israeli sources said the air force spotted militants at the entrance to Beit Lahiya and hit them in an air strike.

Armored bulldozers demolished several houses and flattened farmland in the town of about 30,000, witnesses said. Israeli soldiers took up positions on several rooftops and trapped dozens of people in their homes, residents said.

Six Palestinians were shot and injured by army gunfire, one seriously, rescue officials said. Two of the injured were teenagers who were throwing stones at tanks, witnesses said.

Colonel Eyal Eisenberg told Army Radio yesterday morning that the operation in the northern Gaza Strip would continue indefinitely, until Palestinian militants stop firing Qassam rockets on Israel.

Sharon's internal political problems threatened to scuttle the Gaza pullout plan.

With the first parliamentary vote on the pullout just weeks away, it appeared likely that Sharon will have to rely on the moderate opposition Labor Party -- an alliance that threatens to destroy his faction.

The fissures in Sharon's Likud Party were visible during the prime minister's policy speech to parliament on Monday night. In a symbolic vote, lawmakers rejected Sharon's policy speech in which he defended his Gaza plan. Roughly a quarter of the Likud's lawmakers didn't support their leader.

Sharon plans to dismantle all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four small enclaves in the West Bank next year. Sharon says the plan will boost Israel's security and head off international efforts to force Israel to make deeper concessions.

Hardliners, including critics within the Likud, accuse Sharon of caving in to violence and fear his plan is just the beginning of a larger withdrawal from the West Bank.

Sharon intends to present the pullout plan for parliamentary approval on Oct. 25.

While he is expected to survive that vote, the long-term prospects for his coalition are dim. Sharon faces further parliamentary votes on the withdrawal as well as a contentious budget battle.

Hardline opposition to the Gaza plan has already left Sharon with a minority coalition, meaning he will have to seek new partners or call early elections as he pushes forward with his agenda. The next elections are scheduled for 2006.

Dalia Itzik, a senior Labor lawmaker, said the party's 21 legislators will support Sharon when he brings the Gaza plan to a vote. She also said the party would be willing to join the government to prevent its collapse.

Sharon could face more trouble early next year when the state budget comes up for consideration. If a government fails to pass a budget by the end of March, it must resign.
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