Palestinian Power Struggle
The shape of things Palestinian appears to be changing.
A source says Palestinian police chief Ghazi al-Jabali has decided to resign and will be a candidate in the upcoming presidential elections.
That word comes a day after the Palestinians' West Bank preventive security chief - Colonel Jibril Rajoub, widely considered a potential successor to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat - vehemently denied as "lies and baseless stories" reports that Arafat had tried to fire Rajoub. But on Thursday, a senior Palestinian official said Arafat served Rajoub with his dismissal papers.
That disclosure appeared to resolve confusion over Rajoub's status which broke out this week when he denied rumors that he had been sacked but said he would go if he received an official dismissal letter from Arafat.
The senior official said Arafat had made the decision on Wednesday to move Rajoub to Jenin as governor of the northern West Bank city and appoint the incumbent there, Zuhair Manasra, as the new Preventive Security chief in the West Bank.
Arafat, who has not said he wants to step aside, is under international pressure to reform the Palestinian security force. And the U.S. has been putting heavy pressure on the Palestinians to find a leader other than Arafat.
Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo had said any plan to remove Rajoub was just a rumor although decisions were expected on restructuring the security services this week.
"Decisions (on the reform of security services) will be taken and will be made public within a day or two," Abed Rabbo told Qatari satellite television station al-Jazeera. "There are suggestions and issues under discussion and maybe some of these things under discussion were leaked to the press. A decision regarding these issues has not been issued yet."
Pressure for reform has increased since Israel reoccupied seven Palestinian-ruled cities in the West Bank last month following two suicide bombings that killed 26 Israelis as part of an uprising against Israeli occupation.
Israel said on Wednesday it was easing some of the restrictions imposed by its army, although hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will remain under curfew at night.
Whatever the outcome of the Palestinian power struggle, it was unlikely to be enough to mollify Arafat's U.S. critics.
In an interview Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell reasserted Washington's position that it would no longer deal with Arafat and said U.S. officials had embarked on a diplomatic effort to bring reluctant Europeans on board.
Powell said he would soon meet fellow members of a "quartet" of Middle East peacemakers, and Arab leaders, for fresh talks on ending the violence.
President Bush said last month that no move would be made towards creating a Palestinian state unless Palestinians elected new leaders "uncompromised by terror" and implemented sweeping democratic reforms.
Arafat responded last week by calling elections for January and announcing an overhaul of Palestinian institutions, including the security services Israel has blamed for failing to stop attacks that have killed scores of Israelis.
Conditions meanwhile are easing in some parts of the West Bank, with a decision by the Israeli cabinet Wednesday to gradually end daytime curfews in cities occupied by Israeli soldiers.
"We can't punish an entire people," Israel's dovish foreign minister, Shimon Peres, was quoted as telling the cabinet.
Israeli forces will continue to keep 700,000 Palestinians confined to their houses at night.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed to hold on to Palestinian-ruled areas as long as attacks on Israelis continue.
Palestinian cabinet member Saeb Erekat dismissed the Israeli move as a ploy to "sustain the occupation and sustain the collective punishment of 3.3 million Palestinians."
"We hope once we are able to subdue terrorism ... it will be possible to renew the political process ... and allow the Palestinian people to return to normal life, which definitely they do deserve," said Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Israeli military sources say hundreds of Palestinians have been detained for questioning and about 60 are still being held. That is far fewer than the number detained during a six-week offensive that ended in May - and which failed to stop Palestinian suicide bombings.
In Hebron Tuesday - according to witnesses - Israeli soldiers entered the Palestinian Polytechnic Institute and ordered hundreds of men and women into separate yards where they checked IDs and questioned students.
Witnesses say at least seven students were taken away and a number of the students were blindfolded.
The military said a Palestinian on Israel's suspect list was arrested at the university, and five other Palestinians later were arrested in Hebron. In the past, Israel has singled out West Bank universities, calling them hotbeds of terrorism.
Israeli soldiers also re-entered the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, arresting three Palestinians, including two the Israeli military says were planning suicide bomb attacks.
In the southern Gaza Strip, along the border with Egypt, Israeli forces found and destroyed a tunnel intended for smuggling weapons, the army said, adding that several such tunnels had been found recently.
At Israel's international airport outside Tel Aviv, Israeli authorities refused entry to a group of 18 Americans that arrived to express support for the Palestinians.
The U.S. group included naturalized citizens born in Pakistan, Egypt and Iraq, said Interior Ministry spokeswoman Tova Ellinson. Two members of the U.S. group were admitted entry because they have Israeli citizenship. A British citizen traveling with the Americans was put on a flight back home.
"They wanted to show solidarity with the Palestinians," she said. "The state of Israel is in a state of war at the moment and no other country would allow its enemies or those who support its enemies to enter."
Since the military clamped down on West Bank towns 12 days ago and imposed curfews, no Israelis have been killed by Palestinians but 15 Palestinians have died in clashes.
During the earlier Israeli incursion, starting March 29, more than 200 Palestinians were killed, along with 28 Israelis.
At least 1,431 Palestinians and 548 Israelis have been killed since the uprising by the Palestinians began when peace talks stalled nearly two years ago.