Abbas rounds on commanders after truce breached

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, fired three of his top security chiefs today after militants, puncturing a ceasefire he reached with Israel, bombarded Jewish settlements in Gaza with mortar rounds. Ophir Pines, the Israeli cabinet minister, praised Abbas for "an unprecedented step" in dismissing the three, members of Yasser Arafat's old guard, in response to violence that flared after Tuesday's summit in Egypt with Ariel Sharon, the prime minister.

Palestinian officials said Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh, the public security chief for the West Bank and Gaza, Saeb al-Ajez, Palestinian Authority police chief and Omar Ashour, commander of the security forces in the southern Gaza Strip, were all fired. Six lower-ranking commanders also lost their jobs. "Nobody can shirk their duties, and measures will be taken to boost the capability of the security services in accordance with decisions taken at the political level," Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinian Security Council member, told Reuters.

In another reminder of armed chaos in the Palestinian street challenging Abbas, dozens of gunmen including Hamas militants stormed into a Gaza City prison today and shot dead three inmates in a settling of scores between feuding clans. Some 50 mortar bombs and rockets hit settlements in Gaza, but there were no casualties in the attacks by militants who have refused to participate in the ceasefire Abbas and Sharon announced at their groundbreaking meeting.

Israel signalled it would make no immediate military response. "If the Palestinians do not know how (to stop such attacks), we do," Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli defence minister, told reporters. However, referring to Abbas's intention to end more than four years of violence, Mofaz added: "We cannot let this historic opportunity slip through our fingers." - Reuters