Two people were killed Thursday night when a blast ripped through a car in Gaza City. The explosion took place in the Shati refugee camp.
Members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed group linked to Fatah movement, accused Israel of "assassinating" one of their comrades in the area. They identified him as Wael al-Namara and said he was also a member of the Palestinian Preventive Security service.
Earlier, three Palestinians were wounded when an Israeli tank shelled a Palestinian taxi near the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian sources reported. The three - a man and two women - were moderately wounded in the incident.
Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat formally dismissed his tough West Bank security chief, ending speculation of a power struggle, as aid groups warned of a looming humanitarian crisis in reoccupied Palestinian cities.
Arafat signed a decree replacing Colonel Jibril Rajoub with Jenin governor Zuheir Manasrah, while Rajoub was immediately appointed to Manasrah's old job, AFP reported. At the same time, senior officials said police chief General Ghazi Jabali officially submitted his resignation to Arafat, two days after the Palestinian leader reportedly decided to fire him.
These latest moves put an end to two days of confusion and anticipation in the upper echelons of the Palestinian administration, when officials said the men had been sacked while both denied they had been informed of the dismissals.
But a preventive security officer in the West Bank town of Ramallah said he and a group of colleagues forwarded a petition to Arafat protesting at the way Rajoub was sacked and against the move itself, saying it was the only security branch untainted by corruption. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
