Abbas sacks security chiefs

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fired three of his top security chiefs yesterday after militants punctured a ceasefire he had agreed with Israel by bombarding Jewish settlements in Gaza with mortars.

After the attacks, Israel had put off security coordination talks scheduled as a follow-up to Tuesday's groundbreaking meeting in Egypt with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

But an Israeli official said troops would not retaliate after some 50 mortar bombs and rockets hit settlements in Gaza.

There were no casualties in the attacks by militants who have refused to participate in Mr Abbas's ceasefire gesture, and plans for him to reconvene with Mr Sharon next week at the Israeli leader's desert ranch remained in place.

Palestinian officials said Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh, public security chief for the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian Authority police chief Saeb al-Ajez and Omar Ashour, commander of the security forces in the southern Gaza Strip, were all dismissed.

"Nobody can shirk their duties, and measures will be taken to boost the capability of the security services in accordance with decisions taken at the political level," Palestinian Security Council member Jibril Rajoub told Reuters.

In another reminder of armed chaos in the Palestinian street challenging Mr Abbas, dozens of gunmen including Hamas militants had stormed into a Gaza City prison yesterday and shot dead three inmates in a settling of scores between feuding clans.

Hamas, which with other militant groups had maintained a tacit truce for weeks to give Mr Abbas a chance to start negotiating with Israel, insisted it was not defying Mr Abbas with the mortar salvoes but only responding to Israeli "aggression".

Mr Abbas's office said: "President Abbas has given orders to security chiefs to assume their responsibility to prevent any breach in the agreements to protect the national interest."

Hamas militants said the barrage was to avenge the death of a Palestinian shot dead by Israeli troops from a settlement on Wednesday. Troops said they fired on suspected intruders. Palestinians said the man was a civilian walking near his home.

The first sustained outbreak of shooting since Tuesday's summit posed a serious test of Mr Abbas's mettle after his promise, hailed by Israel and the United States, to end four years of violence. Elected following the death of Yasser Arafat, whom Mr Sharon shunned, Mr Abbas says he is determined to seek peace.

Thousands of Palestinian security police fanned out through Gaza two weeks ago on Mr Abbas's orders to safeguard the truce he coaxed from militants. But those forces have not tried to disarm gunmen. Israel has called such hesitancy a recipe for failure.

A senior Israeli official said Mr Abbas had to crack down on armed factions quickly or risk the collapse of the calm seen as crucial to launching a US-devised peace "road map" that charts steps to a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied territories.

Mr Abbas has said he prefers to co-opt rather than try to crush militant factions for fear of civil unrest since many Palestinians regard the gunmen as "freedom fighters" they credit for Mr Sharon's decision to evacuate tiny Gaza later this year.