Arafat declares emergency after Gaza kidnappings

A security panel headed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat declared a state of emergency in the Gaza Strip early today after a wave of kidnappings that included a Palestinian police chief and four French citizens.

Although the hostages were later freed, the crisis raised questions about the future of prime minister Ahmed Qureia’s government, which was meeting today in a session that could determine its future, a Palestinian official said.

The declaration by the Palestinian national security council called for increased protection around government buildings and cancelled all leave for security officials.

The deteriorating situation reflected the growing tussle by militant groups and individuals trying to strengthen their positions before Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon withdraws Israeli forces and some 7,500 settlers from Gaza late next year.

The four French volunteers, working on an electrical project, were kidnapped at a café in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Two women were released a few hours later and then the two men, all unharmed. Their captors said they acted to draw world attention to Palestinian suffering caused by Israel’s occupation.

The kidnappings prompted two senior Palestinian security officials to submit their resignations, but Arafat refused to accept them.

Hours before the French were kidnapped, the director of military co-ordination in southern Gaza, Col Khaled Abu Aloula, was seized from his car while returning to Gaza City from Khan Younis.

Palestinian security officials blamed recently fired policemen whose request for reinstatement was refused by Aloula.

Yesterday, Palestinian chief of police Ghazi Jabali was ambushed in his car three miles south of Gaza City. The militants smashed a window, pulled Jabali out and sped off toward the Bureij Refugee Camp, witnesses said.

Two of his bodyguards were wounded in a shootout. The militants were apparently angry about not getting jobs with the security forces.

Hours later, Palestinian Authority officials negotiated the release of Jabali, who was driven in a convoy of Palestinian security officers and officials of Arafat’s Fatah party to his office in Gaza City, where he greeted supporters wearing his uniform and black beret.

A group from the little-known Jenin Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for the abduction. But other militants said the gunmen were members of a militia Jabali himself created to back his bid for power after the Israelis left Gaza.

Several new militant organisations have appeared in Gaza, many grouped under the umbrella of the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committee. The committee, which has no clear political agenda or ideology, was pressing for more jobs in the police force for its members.

As head of the police, Jabali has been identified as Arafat’s “enforcer”, a tough leader known for cracking down on dissenters.

But Jabali has made enemies over the years among Palestinians who see him as part of the corruption that riddled the Gaza administration.

Jabali has been the target of several attacks this year. He escaped harm in April when militants planted a bomb at his home.

He has clashed with Mohammed Dahlan, a former Palestinian security chief also bidding to bolster his position as the Israelis prepare to leave.

In the West Bank, meanwhile, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group affiliated to the ruling Fatah party, has banned the chief United Nations Middle East envoy from entering Palestinian territories or meeting Palestinian officials.

The group’s order followed a similar ban by the authority and represented an escalation in Palestinian anger over envoy Terje Roed-Larsen’s public criticisms of Arafat.

The order could be considered a warning that the Norwegian diplomat could be attacked if he defied the ban.

A group spokesman said that Arafat aides asked the militants to release the statement against Roed-Larsen. But another Al-Aqsa official denied that in a phone call to The Associated Press.

“The statement reflects our views,” said Abu Amin, an Aqsa leader in the West Bank town of Jenin. “It has nothing to do with Yasser Arafat.”

Roed-Larsen has long been considered close to Arafat and sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

But earlier this week, Roed-Larsen told a UN Security Council briefing that the Palestinian leader was blocking vital reforms within the Palestinian Authority and hindering peace moves.