The Hindu : Palestinian security officials defiant

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 05, 2002

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International

Palestinian security officials defiant

JERUSALEM July 4. A top security official dismissed by the Palestinian Authority leader, Yasser Arafat, said today he would challenge Mr. Arafat in upcoming elections while another security official offered his resignation but not until Mr. Arafat officially fired him.

Mr. Arafat dismissed the West Bank Preventive Security commander, Jibril Rajoub, and the Gaza police chief, Ghazi Jibali, but both men said they had not received official notice of their dismissals and vowed to stay in their posts. "I will implement President Arafat's orders in my own way," Mr. Rajoub told The Associated Press today from his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah. He said he would submit his resignation once Mr. Arafat made his dismissal official.

A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity said Mr. Jibali too would resign and would consider running against Mr. Arafat in January elections. Mr. Jibali was not immediately available for comment. Though Mr. Rajoub has pledged loyalty to Mr. Arafat, Israeli media reported that Mr. Rajoub's backers were rejecting any other commander in his place. Mr. Rajoub's security force is the strongest in the West Bank, and Mr. Rajoub's power there is second only to Mr. Arafat's.

Israeli security forces, meanwhile, said today they detained several suspected militants overnight in West Bank towns. Yesterday, Israel moved to ease conditions in the West Bank, held in a tight grip for two weeks in the latest Israeli offensive after back-to-back suicide bomb attacks killed 26 Israelis in Jerusalem last month.

A senior Israeli official said Israel had arrested or killed nearly all Palestinians on its most-wanted list and was now focussing on nabbing low-level militants who it claimed are rapidly moving up in the ranks in militant cells.

"There's no doubt the top brass of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Tanzim (militias) by and large are either in custody or have been eliminated," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Most of the militants were either arrested or killed during a six-week offensive in March and April or during the latest Israeli occupation of West Bank cities that began two weeks ago after a pair of back-to-back suicide bombings in Jerusalem killed 26 Israelis.

Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, said Israel had arrested some Hamas activists, but denied it had penetrated the highest ranks. "They will never succeed in halting the martyrs' operations," he said referring to suicide bombings.

Israeli special forces killed Mohaned Tahir, 26, on Sunday, a prominent Hamas bombmaker in Nablus, who the army said was responsible for killing some 120 people in several suicide bombings.

The Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz, said he was the last chief Hamas activist in the West Bank wanted by Israel.

The Israeli official said security forces are now searching for low-level activists, who could quickly become leaders in the three militant cells that have carried out most of the attacks against Israelis since the Palestinian uprising erupted in September 2000.

— AP

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