Arafat decries assassination of key adviser

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat yesterday denounced as a "dirty assassination" the killing of a longtime adviser by gunmen in the Gaza Strip, a slaying that appeared to be a sign of intensifying internal conflict among the Palestinians.

At the same time, Israeli authorities disclosed a sharp increase in home building in Jewish settlements. The construction could complicate Israeli efforts to secure American approval for a plan under which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government would uproot settlements in the Gaza Strip but consolidate control over large settlement blocs in the West Bank.

The death of Khalil al-Zaben, a 59-year-old Arafat loyalist who also worked as a journalist, was shocking even by the standard of increasingly brazen street violence in both Gaza and parts of the West Bank. He was riddled with more than a dozen bullets as he left his Gaza City office after midnight.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but both Palestinian sources and Israeli authorities said the killing almost certainly sprang from the complex Palestinian power struggles that have been playing themselves out in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank.

In the course of the violent 41-month-long conflict with Israel, whatever centralized authority existed in the Palestinian territories has been breaking down at an accelerating pace.

Armed Palestinian factions, some with allegiance to Arafat, some backing his rivals within the Palestinian Authority, and some affiliated with militant groups, have been engaged in a growing display of muscle-flexing in recent months -- often directed at one another.

Despite Arafat's denunciation of the killing, his security forces said there were no suspects, even though Gaza is so small and insular that suspicions of carrying out any notable act of violence generally fall quickly on one group or another.

Several of the main militant groups denied a role, but took the opportunity to criticize Arafat. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of the smaller organizations, blamed his administration, saying it has allowed a climate of turmoil to take hold in Gaza.

Hamas, the largest and most powerful of the militant groups, issued a statement denying responsibility for Zaben's death, then a subsequent one saying that the initial denial had not been authorized and that Hamas did not regret the death.

At his half-ruined headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Arafat convened his Cabinet and National Security Council to discuss the deterioration of public order in Gaza. Afterward, top Palestinian officials expressed worry that internal feuds could derail efforts to restart peace talks.

"I believe the Palestinian government and security forces must take all action possible to end this chaos. It is really undermining the Palestinian struggle to establish an independent state," said Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat.

Many Palestinians blame Israel for the slide into lawlessness because of its targeting of their security forces at various points in the intifadah, or uprising. Israel has accused some members of the Palestinian police and other security branches of deep involvement in planning and carrying out terror attacks.

Israeli officials have been disquieted by Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence, because an eruption of all-out factional fighting would greatly hinder negotiations with the government led by the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei.

In the longer term, both Israeli and Palestinian officials worry that Palestinian militant groups will move to the forefront if Israel pulls its soldiers and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, as Sharon has said he wants to do.

Nonetheless, Israel pressed ahead with diplomatic efforts to win support for Sharon's initiative for a unilateral pullout. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom met yesterday in London with British officials, and a senior Israeli delegation was in Washington laying the groundwork for a White House invitation for Sharon.

The plea comes at an awkward moment. The Bush administration has long demanded that Israel stop expanding Jewish settlements, but government statistics released yesterday indicated construction had grown by more than one-third.