GAZA, July 24: Palestinian militants briefly commandeered a government building in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, demanding President Yasser Arafat reinstate comrades they said had been dismissed from the security forces.
The Arafat-led Palestinian Authority (PA), which is reeling from widespread unrest at charges of corruption in its ranks, rejected as "fabrication" the charges by members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who stormed the governorate of Khan Younis town at dawn.
Hours earlier, unidentified Palestinians torched a two-storey police station in the nearby village of Al Zawaida.
"We are trying to determine who took advantage of the instability in the Palestinian territories to commit this crime," Mayor Ahmed Abu Zayyid said. Al Aqsa Brigades denied involvement.
Dozens of militants barricaded in the Khan Younis office building had demanded the Palestinian president fire his nephew, Moussa Arafat, whose appointment to a top Gaza security post last week sparked armed standoffs with reformist vigilantes.
By afternoon, the militants dispersed after announcing a deal under which the 11 Brigades men who they said had been dismissed from security jobs by Moussa Arafat, would be reinstated.
"The crisis is over, as we received a decision by President Yasser Arafat to stop the dismissal," the militants' leader, using the nom de guerre Abu al Haj, said.
Moussa Arafat said no Al Aqsa Brigades members served in the security forces, nor had there been any firings. "This (Khan Younis militants' claim) is a fabrication," he said in a statement.
But Moussa Arafat added that 10 security men were under investigation on suspicion of unspecified "security offences".
The Palestinian president shuffled security chiefs on Monday, but did not dismiss his nephew. He has also scrambled to head off a resignation threat by Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, who demands long-awaited reform of security forces.
TEENAGER KILLED: A Palestinian teenager was killed in Gaza Strip on Friday as he tried to stop militants from planting an anti-Israeli bomb.
Hassan al Zaanin, 18, was killed in Gaza's northern Beit Hanun area as worried locals confronted militants planting a roadside bomb aimed at Israeli troops.-Agencies
