Arafat killing casts shadow over Gaza

KHAN YUNIS – The killing of a top security official in the Gaza Strip yesterday underscores the security chaos Palestinian leaders will have to control after Israel ends its 38-year occupation.

As the clock ticks down to Israel’s handover to the Palestinians of Gaza’s 21 former Jewish settlements, anger is boiling over against the Palestinian Authority among Gaza’s impoverished 1,3 million residents. Mussa Arafat, a military advisor to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and a cousin of the late Yasser Arafat, was shot dead by militant gunmen at his home in Gaza City yesterday.The killing of Arafat, reviled my many as a symbol of the systematic corruption within the Palestinian Authority, was the most potent expression yet of the festering discontent against the political establishment.Youths have also been battling Palestinian security forces for three days in southern Gaza.The skirmishes, which included two violent demonstrations over unemployment, climaxed on Tuesday as teenagers over-ran Palestinian police and charged Israeli positions by an abandoned settlement bloc before one of them was shot dead.The mounting tensions raise serious questions over whether calm will prevail after the last Israeli soldier quits Gaza, leaving the Palestinian leadership struggling to keep a lid on the chaos.Denouncing Arafat’s killing, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas vowed the crime “will not hinder efforts to impose order and the rule of law”.With Palestinian security on a state of alert, the interior ministry recognised the assassination a “serious escalation in the security situation”.Alarmed, Israel’s top brass want remaining troops pulled out of Gaza immediately, ahead of a planned departure by September 15, fearing a conflict with young mobs could wash away the gains of the pullout.Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has recommended that Israel bring forward the departure of its troops by three days, public radio said.”Get Out Of Gaza Now” said the front-page headline of the mass-selling Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot.”The danger grows every further day that passes with Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip,” said the newspaper.A senior Palestinian security official said he was worried things would only get worse as forces struggle to control hundreds of restive youths.”It will be hard to control them and Israeli soldiers will open fire if they feel under threat,” the official said on condition of anonymity.The unrest not only threatens the reform-minded Abbas’s ambitions for Gaza but could ultimately undermine his leadership.Although he wants to use the pullout to mark out the Palestinian Authority as an effective government body, Israel’s imminent departure seems to have unleashed Palestinian anger against their own elite.Arafat’s killing could mark uncharted waters as militant groups showed how far they were willing to go in asserting their muscle in post-pullout Gaza.- Nampa-AFPMussa Arafat, a military advisor to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and a cousin of the late Yasser Arafat, was shot dead by militant gunmen at his home in Gaza City yesterday.The killing of Arafat, reviled my many as a symbol of the systematic corruption within the Palestinian Authority, was the most potent expression yet of the festering discontent against the political establishment.Youths have also been battling Palestinian security forces for three days in southern Gaza.The skirmishes, which included two violent demonstrations over unemployment, climaxed on Tuesday as teenagers over-ran Palestinian police and charged Israeli positions by an abandoned settlement bloc before one of them was shot dead.The mounting tensions raise serious questions over whether calm will prevail after the last Israeli soldier quits Gaza, leaving the Palestinian leadership struggling to keep a lid on the chaos.Denouncing Arafat’s killing, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas vowed the crime “will not hinder efforts to impose order and the rule of law”.With Palestinian security on a state of alert, the interior ministry recognised the assassination a “serious escalation in the security situation”.Alarmed, Israel’s top brass want remaining troops pulled out of Gaza immediately, ahead of a planned departure by September 15, fearing a conflict with young mobs could wash away the gains of the pullout.Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has recommended that Israel bring forward the departure of its troops by three days, public radio said.”Get Out Of Gaza Now” said the front-page headline of the mass-selling Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot.”The danger grows every further day that passes with Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip,” said the newspaper.A senior Palestinian security official said he was worried things would only get worse as forces struggle to control hundreds of restive youths.”It will be hard to control them and Israeli soldiers will open fire if they feel under threat,” the official said on condition of anonymity.The unrest not only threatens the reform-minded Abbas’s ambitions for Gaza but could ultimately undermine his leadership.Although he wants to use the pullout to mark out the Palestinian Authority as an effective government body, Israel’s imminent departure seems to have unleashed Palestinian anger against their own elite.Arafat’s killing could mark uncharted waters as militant groups showed how far they were willing to go in asserting their muscle in post-pullout Gaza.- Nampa-AFP