Amid signs of growing lawlessness in the Palestinian-controlled territories, three men were killed by fellow Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza yesterday. They included the director of Palestinian television and radio, who was one of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's closest friends.
Mr Hisham Miki (54), a father of seven who often sat alongside Mr Arafat during Friday prayers at their Gaza mosque, was waiting alone at the entrance to a Gaza beachfront hotel when three masked men approached and shot him dead from close range. Doctors said later that he had been hit in the head and heart by 10 bullets.
Some Palestinian leaders accused fellow Palestinians, "collaborators" with Israel, of responsibility for the killing. The Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that he had been killed by the "bullets of treason and betrayal". Mr Miki's own TV station said that the hunt was now on for the "cowardly collaborators" who had gunned down "the martyr".
Israel has assassinated about a dozen Palestinian activists in recent weeks - the alleged leaders of what it has called "the shooting gangs" at the forefront of the new Palestinian Intifada. Israeli leaders have raised angry protests about what they have called the "incitement against Israel" that has been broadcast on Palestinian television in recent weeks, with hours of programming showing Palestinian protests and often gruesome footage of Intifada victims.
However, while Israeli military sources have generally acknowledged when they have carried out a killing, they yesterday flatly denied any connection to the death of Mr Miki. Privately, some Palestinian officials said that Israel was not involved, and there were rumours that his death was linked to corruption.
Some sources said that leaflets critical of Mr Miki had been distributed in Gaza recently, and there were reports that he had often been accompanied by two bodyguards.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, the bodies of two alleged collaborators were found yesterday, bringing the number killed in recent days to six, including two who were executed by the Palestinian Authority last weekend.
Palestinian sources say that dozens of other collaborators have been arrested.