GAZA CITY, 26 August 2004 — Gunmen ambushed the acting head of the Palestinian intelligence service in the Gaza Strip yesterday, wounding him seriously, killing two bodyguards and fueling fears of fresh chaos.

Brig.-Gen. Tareq Abu Rajab was the acting boss of the General Intelligence Service since its head resigned last month amid unprecedented Palestinian unrest over demands for anti-corruption reform.

The attack targeted Rajab’s convoy near the Shatti refugee camp in the west of the city as it headed toward his local headquarters. Abu Rajab was wounded in the chest and arm and was initially taken to Gaza City’s main Al-Shifa hospital.

Gunmen fired from two moving cars as Abu Rajab drove to his office, security sources said. Then they took off in different directions in what looked like a planned attack. Two of Abu Rajab’s bodyguards were killed and another wounded. Medics said the commander was in serious condition and undergoing surgery.

“It’s a sinful crime and it is condemned by everybody. We are confident that the criminals will not escape punishment,” Rashid Abu Shabak, head of internal security in the Gaza Strip, said after visiting Abu Rajab in hospital.

“The Palestinian Authority must carry out decisive procedures to stop the security deterioration, which has started to harm Palestinian leaders.”

Hours after the attack, Palestinian legislators voted for a package of widely demanded reforms. But sponsors feared nothing would come of it because President Yasser Arafat had withheld approval.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Parliament voted in favor of a report calling for the prime minister to have powers to end “security chaos” by revamping a plethora of security forces loyal to Arafat and making them accountable to the Cabinet.

It also urged elections to weed out an old elite around Arafat that many see as venal, incompetent and out of touch. But some of the report’s authors said Arafat was still balking at signing a decree needed to launch the reform package.

“The president has agreed to our recommendations in general but he is refusing to issue a decree to implement them. Without a decree, our recommendations will not be binding,” committee member Azmi Al-Shueibi said.

Abu Rajab was later transferred to a hospital in the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon, where he was immediately taken for surgery, an Israeli spokeswoman said.

Palestinian sources said that one of the dead bodyguards, 27-year-old Khamis Abdel Jawad, was killed on the scene while a second, Samir Hijjo, 37, died of his injuries in hospital.

Rajab, 58, has been at the helm of the intelligence services since previous incumbent Amin Al-Hindi resigned in July after a series of kidnappings in the territory.

Yesterday, Israeli police said they had removed two caravans from one of dozens of unauthorized West Bank settler outposts, arresting four settlers who resisted the evacuation.

Meanwhile, two Palestinian men were wounded yesterday during an Israeli Army operation in the West Bank town of Bethlehem where a member of an armed militant group was arrested.

— Additional input from Agencies