Gun threat shows Arafat under strain

11.50 am - By PHIL REEVES

RAMALLAH - Trembling, Yasser Arafat whipped out his gun and pointed it at the chief of his West Bank security services during an argument over the growing disorder among the Palestinians of the occupied territories.

One of his officials said the 72-year-old Palestinian leader was shaking so intensely that the semi-automatic German-made machine-pistol, which he routinely carries, fell from his hand.

Some sources say he slapped the colonel - Jibril Rajoub, who has links with the CIA and is one of the of the most ruthless and powerful men in his inner circle - on the face, and had to be restrained by his frightened aides.

Others claim he repeatedly screamed: "You want to replace me!" International diplomats were last night scrutinising contradictory reports of this encounter to see whether it meant that Yasser Arafat is finally cracking up, after being trapped in his West Bank compound by Israeli tanks for more than two months as Palestinian institutions crumble around him.

Or was this another deliberate cameo from an accomplished showman, designed to con the outside world into believing that the pressure on him is reaching unacceptable levels, and must be eased?

Yesterday, the pressure rose still further, undiminished by the presence of Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, who arrived for a two-day visit to try to urge both sides in the Israel-Palestinian conflict to draw back from the brink.

While Mr Straw was glad-handing senior Israelis - but not the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, who cried off with flu - the Israeli army was rampaging through Gaza in its largest military raid into the Palestinian-run strip since the start of the 17-month intifada.

By mid-afternoon, its troops had killed five Palestinians and invaded a refugee camp and three towns, withdrawing from all but one. Three of the dead were policemen.

Evidence at the scene of their death - near the town of Deir al-Balah - suggested that they been running away from their post when it was hit with an Israeli tank shell, packed with hundreds of "flechettes" - tiny, deadly, darts.

They died during the latest reprisals by Israel against the Palestinians which began on Sunday after guerrillas from the Islamic-nationalist Hamas movement fired two new rockets out of Gaza into Israel, digging craters in fields but injuring no one.

Israel's publicity machine moved into overdrive, describing the "Kassam-II" missiles - makeshift, unguided weapons cobbled together in the back streets of Gaza, but with a range of up to 8km - as a dangerous escalation in the conflict. Their warheads carry around 6kg of explosives, a payload that can blow the roof off a room.

But they are dwarfed by the 450kg laser-guided bombs blasted into empty Palestinian security buildings in the heart of the densely populated Gaza City by Israeli F-16 war planes earlier this week in reply.

While Israel stepped up its military actions - amid threats that it was planning to create anti-Kassam "buffer zones" in the occupied terriroties - Mr Straw yesterday sought to send friendly signals to Mr Sharon.

Mr Straw said the Palestinian leader must make the first move towards restoring calm by clamping down on the "terrorism which emanates from the occupied territories", such as suicide bombers, who have killed scores of Israeli civilians.

Speaking after lunching with Shimon Peres, Israel's Foreign Minister, Mr Straw called for the implementation of the Mitchell peace plan, omitting to mention that Mr Sharon has systematically blocked it. He also pointedly distanced himself from a French-led European Union plan for immediate Palestinian elections followed swiftly by the declaration of a Palestinian state as the starting point of negotiations.

The plan contradicts the strategy of the US, Israel's chief ally and main peace mediator.

Mr Straw stressed the importance of avoiding an EU-US rift.

Whether Mr Arafat's pistol-flourish at his security chief was sincere or not, there is no doubt that Palestinian institutions are beginning to disintegrat. His row with Jibril Rajoub - patched up yesterday by an oath of loyalty from the colonel - appears to have been over his forces' failure to control a mob which stormed a police station and released 14 Islamic militants from jail in Hebron.

There have also been fierce internal arguments within his Fatah movement over whether to break up the armed militias - particularly the al-Aqsa Brigades.

Law and order - never strong - has broken down. The worst example came last week when a crowd lynched three defendants in a court.

The Israeli armed forces said that yesterday's operations in Gaza were primarily aimed at the Palestinians covert weapons manufacturing centres. But evidence is mounting that security is not Mr Sharon's foremost objective. UN officials point out that many of its recent operations have less to do with military targets as "state-building in reverse".

They point to the way Israeli forces have gouged up the runway of Gaza airport, wrecked much of the EU-funded Gaza port, and ransacked the Palestinian Statistics Office in Ramallah.

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