Gunmen briefly seize Gaza governor's office
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-05 17:40

Masked gunmen briefly seized the Palestinian governor's office in a southern Gaza Strip town on Sunday, demanding compensation for Israeli raids in a protest that added to signs of growing lawlessness.

Palestinian gunmen take up position inside a Palestinian governor's office at the Khan Younis refugee camp southern Gaza Strip September 5,2004. Masked gunmen occupied a Palestinian governor's office in a southern Gaza Strip town on Sunday, demanding compensation for Israeli raids in a protest that added to signs of growing lawlessness. [Reuters]

The territory has been gripped by unprecedented turmoil amid demands for Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to enact anti-corruption reforms and a tussle for control ahead of an Israeli plan to quit the occupied Gaza Strip.

Gunmen took over the governor's office in Khan Younis early on Sunday to demand compensation from Arafat's Palestinian Authority for destruction caused by Israeli raids.

They left about an hour later after authorities promised to set up a mechanism to compensate Palestinian homeless.

The gunmen said they were not from any of the militant groups waging a 4-year-old uprising.

But rather they came from a neighborhood where Israeli troops dynamited two apartment blocks last week. The army raid followed twin Palestinian bus bombings, which killed 16 people inside Israel last week.

"We need homes for the homeless," Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the gunmen told Reuters, adding that 160 families had been made homeless by the latest Israeli demolition and previous raids.

"We are asking President Arafat to stand beside our fair demands," he said, adding that talks had begun with local officials to try to end the standoff.

Unrest which began in the Gaza Strip late in July and also touched the West Bank has posed the biggest internal challenge to Arafat's leadership since he returned from exile a decade ago as Palestinians gained a measure of self-rule.

Protesters are not demanding the removal of Arafat, but want him to enact reforms to curb corruption, bring democracy and remove officials accused of incompetence and graft.

In a concrete step to meeting long-standing international and domestic demands for reforms, Palestinians began registering voters on Saturday for an as yet unscheduled general election -- which is nearly four years overdue.

Arafat, who has resisted reforms that could cost him personal influence, said the election date would be announced after a municipal ballot in November.

The battle between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip has also heated up ahead of a planned Israeli withdrawal from the territory the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Militants want to claim any pullout as a victory, while the Israeli army is determined to smash them first.

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