Arafat's cousin killed as Gaza anarchy worsens

Arafat's cousin killed as Gaza anarchy worsens
By Ed O'Loughlin
Jerusalem
September 8, 2005

Moussa Ararat, pictured here in 2004, was dragged from his home and shot.
Photo: Reuters
THE assassination of Palestinian strongman Moussa Arafat is the latest manifestation of lawlessness in the Gaza Strip, where competing political, clan and criminal factions operate in open defiance of the police.

A cousin of late Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat, Moussa Arafat, 65, was killed early yesterday after a large group of gunmen attacked his home in Gaza City.

Witnesses said the gunmen dragged Mr Arafat from his house after a 30-minute gun battle with his bodyguards, and shot him in the street. His adult son is reported to have been abducted.

A Palestinian militant coalition, the Popular Resistance Committees, claimed responsibility.

A former head of Palestinian security in Gaza, Mr Arafat made many enemies within and beyond Fatah. In the 1990s, he enforced a crackdown on the Islamic militant group Hamas, and recently acquired a reputation for corruption.

Widely seen as his cousin's Gaza enforcer, Mr Arafat fell from grace after Yasser Arafat's death last November. Dismissed from his security role in the Palestinian Authority, he remained an adviser to new chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Like many Palestinian leaders, he retained the loyalty of his own clan's gunmen, several of whom were reportedly injuredyesterday.

The youths clashed with Israeli troops, who shot one young man dead and wounded several others.