TEL AVIV, June 5: As Yasser Arafat’s pledges to reform his sprawling security services send people jostling for power, Colonel Mohammed Dahlan has made a surprise announcement he is quitting after seven years as head of Gaza’s preventive security.

Dahlan said on Wednesday that his resignation was “agreed between me and president Arafat”.

“I want to withdraw gently from my security responsibilities. I asked for this recently after seven years of work within the security services,” he said.

Officials said Dahlan could be offered a job as an Arafat aide, although he was playing his cards close to his chest.

Dahlan carved out a name as a tough operator who was once charged with curbing palestinians from attacking Israel and derailing the peace process.

Since the Palestinian uprising erupted 20 months ago, Dahlan has been accused by Israeli right-wingers of aiding the extremist groups he once worked so assiduously to keep penned up, although he has denied such charges.

Reports in both Israel and the Palestinian territories had tipped Dahlan as possible head of the reformed security services directly under Arafat.

The position would have placed him above his West Bank counterpart Jibril Rajoub, who had been another likely contender before reported disputes with the Palestinian leader appeared to sideline him.

Both men are leading figures of the young guard of top Palestinian officials, Hebrew-speaking men who grew up in the territories after Israel’s 1967 occupation and who have been close to security talks with the Jewish state.

Dahlan was born in 1961 to a Gaza refugee family. He became a member of Arafat’s Fatah movement, going on to lead its youth wing, the Shabiba, in the West Bank.

He was very active in the first Palestinian intifada (1987-1993) as student leader.

Dahlan was in and out of Israeli jails between 1981 and late 1986, before being deported to Jordan in 1988.—AFP

He later joined the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Tunis, where he won Arafat’s confidence.—AFP