Palestinian militants briefly commandeered a government building in the Gaza Strip today, demanding President Yasser Arafat reinstate comrades they said had been dismissed from the national security forces.
The Arafat-led Palestinian Authority, which is reeling from widespread unrest at charges of corruption in its ranks, rejected as "fabrication" the charges by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades gunmen who stormed the governorate of Khan Younis town at dawn.
Hours earlier, unidentified Palestinians torched a two-storey police station in the nearby village of al-Zawaida.
"We are trying to determine who took advantage of the instability in the Palestinian territories to commit this crime," Mayor Ahmed Abu Zayyid said. Al-Aqsa denied involvement.
Dozens of militants barricaded in the Khan Younis office building had demanded the Palestinian president fire his nephew, Mr Moussa Arafat, whose appointment to a top Gaza security post last week sparked armed standoffs with reformist vigilantes.
By afternoon, the militants dispersed after announcing a deal under which 11 al-Aqsa men who they said had been dismissed from security jobs by Mr Moussa Arafat would be reinstated.
"The crisis is over, as we received a decision by President Yasser Arafat to stop the dismissal," the militants' leader, using the nom de guerre Abu al-Haj, told Reuters by telephone.
Al-Aqsa, a disparate group of Fatah young bloods, has spearheaded a revolt that erupted in September 2000 after talks on Palestinian statehood in Israeli-occupied Gaza and the West Bank stalled. Its members have also grown vocal, and violent, in challenging the old guard's grip on Palestinian government.
Mr Moussa Arafat said no al-Aqsa members served in the security forces, nor had there been any firings. "This (Khan Younis militants' claim) is a fabrication," he said in a statement.
But Mr Moussa Arafat added that 10 security men were under investigation on suspicion of unspecified "security offences".