Militant group threatens to kill Arafat minister

A leading militant group has threatened to kill Yasser Arafat's Interior Minister in the first "martrydom attack" on a Palestinian.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades branch in Nablus warned Hani al-Hassan, the Palestinian Authority Interior Minister, not to enter the West Bank city. "Those who are able to reach the heart of Tel Aviv despite all barricades and checkpoints to carry out a successful operation are capable to reach this person and all those who provide protection for him," says a leaflet distributed in Nablus. "The Brigades will do it whatever the price is."

"Martyrdom attack" is a term Palestinian militant groups use for suicide bombings. The Al-Aqsa brigades are linked to Mr Arafat's Fatah movement, and until recently claimed to support him as Palestinian leader.

The reason given for threatening Mr Hassan is his public condemnation of a double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last month in which 23 people were killed, as well as two Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades bombers. This is not the first sign of a rift between the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and the PA over suicide bombings. The Israeli authorities have accused Mr Arafat of personally controlling the group, though they have not published any evidence.

Until last year, Mr Arafat did little to condemn the brigades' suicide bombings. But shortly after he appointed the Interior Minister, Mr Hassan called for all militant attacks on civilians to end inside Israel's 1967 borders, though not in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian analysts say that signalled a change in policy from Mr Arafat.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa called on the Palestinian public recently to stop supporting attacks on civilians inside Israel. But under the strain of curfews and closures, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades have splintered into autonomous local groups, Palestinian sources say, many of them bitterly opposed demands for attacks to stop.