JERUSALEM, 1 August 2004 — In a fresh wave of lawlessness in Palestinian territories, gunmen yesterday briefly abducted three foreign church volunteers and torched a government building.
The flare-up of trouble indicated that the agreement last week by Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei and President Yasser Arafat to share control of the security forces has failed to calm the underlying tensions that led to a paralyzing leadership crisis between the two men.
Five gunmen seized the three church volunteers — an American, a Briton and an Irishman — Friday night near their apartments and took them to the Balata refugee camp.
At around the same time, about a dozen armed men broke into the governor’s building in the northern West Bank town of Jenin and set it on fire.
Both groups demanded financial support from the Palestinian Authority. The Authority denies it funds the militants.
The Associated Press quoted Palestinian officials as saying that the kidnappers won promises of payoffs for themselves and for comrades in Israeli prisons in exchange for freeing the three foreigners.
Officials said the kidnappers, who belonged to a splinter group of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, were told that all their demands will be met, and that the abduction was undermining the Palestinian cause in the eyes of the world.
The demands were for an unspecified amount of support for themselves and for imprisoned comrades, and the promise was made with Arafat’s approval, the AP quoted the Palestinian officials as saying.
The militants drove the hostages to a park in the early hours yesterday and called the security forces to pick them up. The foreigners were first taken to the Nablus office of the Palestinian intelligence, then spent the rest of the night as guests of Ghassan Shaka’a, a close aide to Arafat.
The released hostages refused to speak to reporters, and their identities were not released.
In Jenin, the local commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Zakaria Zubeidi, and his followers gutted the headquarters of the newly appointed governor, Qaddura Moussa. The building was empty and no one was hurt.
“Today was my first day in office, but unfortunately I have to take it when it is burned down,” Moussa said.
Moussa said the militants’ demands should be dealt with through negotiations rather than violence. “We should sit together around the table to settle any problem,” he said.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat condemned the violence, voicing concern about the situation “sliding into chaos” which could harm international support for the Palestinians.
— Additional input from agencies
