2 killed in shooting at Arafat service

TEL AVIV -- Armed men from the radical Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades shot up a mourning tent for the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza City last night, killing two people, injuring at least 10, and sending thousands of mourners fleeing in panic.

Mahmoud Abbas, the leading candidate to succeed Arafat, and Mohammed Dahlan, the man many hope will be able to calm the potentially violent power struggle now brewing among Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, both were inside the tent at the time.

A Palestinian at the scene, near a seaside presidential compound, said Abbas, who is general secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization and currently the most powerful man in Palestinian politics, was pushed to the ground and covered by security guards until he and Dahlan, a powerful local commander who was often at odds with Arafat, could be evacuated safely.

A few hours earlier, Abbas had been nominated by the central committee of the PLO's dominant Fatah movement to succeed Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority. Elections were scheduled for Jan. 9.

With an estimated 100 armed men from the Brigades, Fatah, and various Palestinian security agencies involved in the clash, the toll could have been much higher.

Abbas told reporters in his local office, where he was taken after the incident, that "it was not an assassination attempt. Emotions were high. There was random gunfire and pushing in the crowd. . . . The shooting was not political, it was not personal; it was not against anybody."

But the boiling emotions, which seemed to reflect only grief at Arafat's passing when they got out of hand at the leader's funeral on Friday, last night seemed aimed at Abbas, even if the attackers did not try to kill him.

Witnesses said heavily armed, masked members of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, who are changing the name of their organization to Al Yasser Brigades in memory of Arafat, paraded to the mourning tent around 3 yesterday afternoon. In addition to the usual heavy weaponry, they carried new missiles they called "Yassers" that they said have a longer range and greater accuracy than the Qassam missiles Gaza-based groups generally launch into Israel.

They chanted: "Abu Mazen [Abbas] does not represent us. . . . Neither Dahlan, nor Abu Mazen represents us."

The marchers were led by a masked man who identified himself only by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed, and who told the crowd at the tent that the militants "will not allow anyone to surrender the rights of refugees or Jerusalem." Abbas, who was prime minister for four months last year before he resigned due to disagreements with Arafat, has spoken out against the use of violence to achieve Palestinian statehood, and is generally viewed by Palestinians as well as Israelis and Americans to be more amenable to political negotiation and compromise than Arafat.

The marchers dispersed, but another group -- members of the Brigades and of Fatah -- showed up while Abbas was shaking hands with mourners outside the entrance to the tent. Some of them shouted "No to Abbas," and began firing their weapons in the air. Guards took Abbas into the tent.

The militants were led by Ahmed Hilles, a close associate and supporter of Marwan Barghouthi, a popular Palestinian activist who is in prison in Israel serving five consecutive life sentences for murder in connection with terror attacks over the past four years. Hilles tried to lead the group into the tent but was told that only he would be admitted. His men refused to accept this and burst into the tent, at which point deadly fire was exchanged with Abbas's guards.

"Panicked mourners started running in all directions," said Basem Idwan, a reporter for the Persian Gulf-based Majd TV. "There were dozens from Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, but they were shooting in the air. There was no shooting at Abu Mazen."

After the shooting, a representative of the Brigades denied they were responsible for the incident. He contended that the Brigades were only firing into the air but that a member of Abbas's guard used the chaotic scene as cover to settle a personal score, leading to a general exchange of fire between the militia-like forces of the Brigades and the Palestinian security forces.

Al Aqsa Brigades units in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip rejected Abbas's nomination as Fatah's candidate to succeed Arafat.

"We have only one representative," said a member of the Brigades, who refused to give his name. "He is Marwan Barghouthi. We asked the minister of justice and he said that Barghouthi can legally be a candidate even if he is in jail."

The Fatah central committee, which nominated Abbas, "does not represent us. It has no backing from the street and from the Fatah base," he said. "Barghouthi has the backing of everybody except the central committee."

The shooting incident in Gaza was an ominous sign for senior officials who have formed an interim leadership to manage Palestinian affairs until the election is held. They have been trying hard to maintain calm and arrange a smooth transition to the post-Arafat era, but the chaos at Arafat's funeral and again last night showed just how shaky the peace is.

Arafat for the last decade of his life tried to play to moderates and militants alike, but during the bloody battles between Palestinians and Israelis over the last few years he increasingly reverted to an absolutist, guerrilla-leader persona. Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, both of whom are more moderate and more willing to compromise for peace than Arafat, already are under pressure from militants in the streets and radical Palestinians abroad to resist compromise with Israel.

The resulting internal strains are stronger in Gaza than in the West Bank because of the great popularity of Islamic extremist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and because of widespread public disaffection there with corruption within the Palestinian Authority.

Globe correspondent Sa'id Ghazali contributed to this report. Charles A. Radin can be reached at radin@globe.com.