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Top aide of Arafat killed in Gaza city

GAZA CITY: Mussa Arafat, a military adviser to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and a cousin of the late Yasser Arafat, was shot dead by gunmen at his home in Gaza City on Wednesday.

Abbas convened an emergency meeting of his national security council to discuss how best to assert control over the lawless Gaza Strip with his forces preparing to take control from Israeli troops in little over a week.

Arafat’s assassination, just hours after a Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli troops in southern Gaza, underscored the security chaos and mammoth task facing the Palestinians once Israeli troops leave by mid-September.

Israel’s top brass are calling for soldiers to be recalled from Gaza immediately, saying every further day endangers their lives amid daily clashes with youths on the borderlines of the former Jewish settlements. Arafat, a former security chief and one of Gaza’s traditional strongmen, was shot in front of his wife and son before being dragged on to the street where gunmen blasted 23 bullets into his body, security and medical sources said.

His son, Manhal, was kidnapped by the gunmen who arrived at the family’s Gaza City home before daybreak and opened fire on his large team of bodyguards. Palestinian police and security were out in force in the streets as Abbas held an emergency meeting of his national security council, including Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei and Interior Minister Nasr Yussef. Although no one yet claimed responsibility for Arafat’s assassination, militant groups have continuously vowed to resist any attempts by the Palestinian Authority to confiscate their weapons after Israel leaves Gaza.

Impoverished Gaza, one of the most volatile and densely populated places on earth, has been wracked by lawlessness in recent months, including a spate of kidnappings that has seen the UN withdraw all non-essential foreign staff.

Known to have enemies, Mussa Arafat lost his position as national security chief in April when Abbas culled several officials close to Yasser Arafat but was subsequently named as adviser on military affairs with ministerial rank.

His killing came just hours after a Palestinian teenager was shot dead late on Tuesday as hundreds of stone-throwing youths and Israeli soldiers clashed, racheting up tensions ahead of Israel’s completion of its Gaza withdrawal. The bloodshed was an urgent reminder of how easily relations between the Israelis and Palestinian could deteriorate, despite hopes that Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip could breathe new life into the peace process.

Youths set fire to a handful of tyres across Khan Younis ahead of the teenager’s funeral on Wednesday, as tensions soared.

Teenagers have stormed the edge of the settlements and egging Israeli and Palestinian forces to fight back, prompting senior Israeli army officers to call for troops to come home immediately, a newspaper report said.

“Get Out Of Gaza Now” said the front-page headline of the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily with a photograph of dozens of Palestinian youths hurling stones at an Israeli tank guarding the Gush Katif bloc of settlements that was emptied of all its residents more than two weeks ago. “The danger grows every further day that passes with Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip,” said the newspaper, citing senior ranking Israeli soldiers.

Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has said Israeli troops are to withdraw from the Gaza Strip around September 15 and appealed to Palestinians to wait patiently until the evacuated areas are handed over. afp

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