RAMALLAH, July 4: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat formally dismissed his tough West Bank security chief on Thursday, 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.

At the same time, senior officials said police chief General Ghazi Jabali officially submitted his resignation to Arafat, two days after the Palestinian leader decided to sack him.

The 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 security official in the West Bank town of Ramallah said he and a group of colleagues sent a petition to Arafat protesting the way Rajoub was dropped and against the move itself, saying his was the only security branch untainted by corruption.

Rajoub earlier said he respected Arafat’s decision but said he had only been informed by the intelligence service of “an Arab country”, thought to be Egypt.

He said the way he was dropped was “disrespectful”.

Rajoub’s earlier refusal to even acknowledge that his boss had dumped him had threatened to throw Arafat’s pledged security reforms into a sudden tailspin.

Tensions within Palestinian society — wracked by poverty after being closed off to the outside world during 21 month of conflict and with Israeli forces occupying almost the entire West Bank — flared into street violence in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, when 18 people were injured in rioting.

Israeli forces appeared set to stay in the West Bank, which it has almost entirely reoccupied in the past two weeks after a spate of suicide bombings.

Israel has said it will work to relieve the tough conditions its hardline measures in the West Bank have caused, gradually lifting daytime curfews and allowing small numbers of Palestinians to work again in Israel.

But international relief officials warned that Palestinians have reached the “breaking point” over living conditions.

And the head of Israel’s left-wing opposition, Yossi Sarid, said a “humanitarian catastrophe” was looming in the Palestinian territories.

He blamed US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who both insist Arafat should be dropped as a peace partner.

“President Bush should have known that his speech (last week) would spark a reoccupation of the Palestinian territories and humanitarian catastrophe,” said Sarid.

“We should remind President Bush and Ariel Sharon that starving a civilian population constitutes a crime against humanity for which someone will be held accountable,” he said.

Palestinian analysts and hardline Israeli minister Effi Eitam have predicted the army could stay in the West Bank for the next six months, when Palestinian elections are due.

The mayor of the West Bank town of El Bireh, Walid Hamad, said Israel had put out feelers to work with his council, but said he had refused any collaboration with the forces occupying his town, part of the Ramallah area.

As Arafat faced mounting internal pressure as well as implacable opposition from Israel and Washington, Eitam, a general who heads the National Religious Party, called for Arafat’s name to be added to the list of targets for liquidation.

TWO PALESTINIANS KILLED: Two Palestinians were killed after a blast ripped apart their car as they were driving through Gaza City on Thursday, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.