Amid more deaths, officers protest Arafat appointment

JERUSALEM -- A large group of Palestinian security officers on Saturday rejected Yasser Arafat's choice for a new West Bank security chief in the latest challenge to the authority of the Palestinian leader.

Meanwhile, three Palestinians were killed in two separate shootings in the Gaza Strip, including a woman and her 2-year-old daughter who were hit while riding in a taxi.

Palestinians claimed Israeli troops were responsible for all three deaths. Israel's army said it was investigating the report concerning the mother and child, and was unaware of another incident.

Arafat has been under Israeli and American pressure to restructure his overlapping security forces and direct them to stop terror attacks against Israel. This past week, Arafat dismissed three senior security leaders, including Jibril Rajoub, head of Preventive Security in the West Bank.

Arafat appointed the governor of Jenin, Zuheir al-Manasra, to replace Rajoub.

But almost 200 security officers gathered Saturday to object to the appointment of al-Manasra and demand that Rajoub be given another high-ranking political or security post.

But Rajoub himself said in a Palestinian radio interview Saturday that he was not seeking another post, either in security or politics, for the moment.

"I might change this position in the future, after the elections," he said, referring to polls for the Palestinian Authority leadership and for the Palestinian legislature, both scheduled for January 2003.

Rajoub's fellow officers said al-Manasra was unsuitable because he was not from Preventive Security, the most powerful security branch.

The officers met near Ramallah and planned to march to Arafat's battered compound, which is surrounded by Israeli forces, who control seven of the eight main Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank.

The Israeli troops turned back the marchers as they approached Arafat's compound, but they later allowed a delegation of 10 senior officers to enter.

After a three-hour meeting with Arafat, Col. Ziyad Habalreah told reporters the Palestinian leader had listened sympathetically to the group's insistence that al-Manasra could not lead the service and that the new commander must come from within their ranks.

Habalreah said no date was set for a return meeting, and it was agreed that in the meantime the officers would be under the direct authority of the Palestinian Ministry of the Interior and not that of al-Manasra.

In the Gaza shootings, Randa Hindi and her 2-year-old daughter, Noor, were killed by machine gun fire from an Israeli tank while traveling in a taxi in central Gaza, according to Dr. Ahmed Rabeh, spokesman for al-Aqsa hospital in Deir Balah.

A passenger in the taxi, Jamal Ismail, 29, said the car came under fire just after passing the Netzarim junction near a Jewish settlement that is heavily guarded by the army. Hindi screamed, and the driver sped away. The other passengers included two more of Hindi's children, but no one else was hurt.

An army statement said a preliminary investigation indicated that troops in the area fired at "figures which appeared suspicious." It added that investigations were continuing, to try to determine if there were Palestinian casualties in the incident.

Also, a 44-year-old Palestinian man, Subhi Shurab, was killed by Israeli gunfire while walking from the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis to his home just outside, Palestinian security officials said. The army spokesman's office said it was unaware of any shooting in the area.

Since the Israeli forces took over Palestinian areas in the West Bank more than two weeks ago, 20 Palestinians and no Israelis have been killed.

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