MIDDLE EAST: Masked Palestinian gunmen kidnapped three French civilians in the Gaza town of Khan Younis yesterday, Palestinian witnesses and security officials said.
It was the third Gaza kidnapping in less than a day.
The preventive security chief in Gaza, Mr Rashid Abu Shbak, and the head of Palestinian general intelligence, Mr Amin Hindi, submitted their resignations to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat last night following the kidnappings. They said they were stepping down "because of the state of chaos and the lack of action by the Palestinian Authority to make reforms."
Witnesses said two foreign women and a man had been sitting at a restaurant when the gunmen burst in, abducted them and led them to the local Red Crescent headquarters, where they ordered workers to leave the building.
A Palestinian security official said the hostages were French.
Witnesses said dozens of police officers surrounded the Red Crescent building and that militants holding the foreigners inside had turned off the lights.
Every few minutes, the gunmen fired shots from a window to ward off the police. "A large number of masked men raided our building and called for us to leave. There were three foreigners with them, two women and one old man. (The militants) are still occupying the building," said Mr Haidar Shuber, an employee.
Earlier yesterday Palestinian gunmen kidnapped Yasser Arafat's Gaza police chief, Maj Gen Ghazi Jabali, yesterday afternoon, releasing him two hours later after they were reportedly promised by Mr Arafat that he would be sacked and put on trial for corruption.
Under interrogation by his captors, Mr Jabali admitted to steal- ing $8 million and to rape, Israel Radio reported last night, quoting Palestinian sources. The kidnappers were said to have told Mr Arafat that they had videotaped this confession and would publicise the tape if Mr Jabali was not now fired and tried.
The episode, which saw Mr Jabali seized from his convoy on the Gaza coastal road and taken at gunpoint into a hiding place in a nearby refugee camp where he was questioned, underlined the vicious power struggles taking place in the strip, ahead of Israel's scheduled full withdrawal from Gaza next year.
Mr Jabali, who has been the Palestinian Authority police chief for much of the past decade, is an immensely controversial figure. He came to Gaza with Mr Arafat from Tunis a decade ago, and is said to be close to the Palestinian leader, but was nonetheless briefly fired by Mr Arafat last year. He is at odds with another Gaza strongman, Mr Mohammad Dahlan, has long been reviled by various Palestinian factions for alleged corruption, and is also formally on Israel's wanted list for alleged involvement in terrorism.
Mr Jabali is the survivor of several apparent assassination attempts - the latest of which saw explosives detonated outside the front of his home in April, destroying part of the structure; he had just left.
He was ambushed yesterday as he headed home from his office by a group calling itself, variously, the Popular Resistance Committee and the Jenin Martyrs Brigades.