OCCUPIED RAMALLAH, July 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Confusion swirled Sunday night, July 7, over reports that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had sacked his West Bank intelligence chief and further strained the relations between him and his powerful security forces.

Two senior Palestinian officials close to Arafat said he had signed a decree dismissing West Bank intelligence chief Tawfiq Tirawi, whom Israel accuses of masterminding what they called “terror” attacks, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

But the news was immediately challenged by Amin Al-Hindi, the intelligence chief for all the Palestinian territories, who vehemently denied it and denounced the information as a pack of lies.

“This is completely false. Tirawi is still head of Palestinian intelligence in the West Bank,” Hindi said in a statement, responding to the news leaked by two senior Palestinian officials close to Arafat. “This information is part of a propaganda campaign.”

Tirawi himself also slammed the report as “incorrect news that is completely untrue”.

The dispute resembled last week’s head-on collision between Arafat and his former West Bank preventive security chief Jibril Rajoub, who was sacked Thursday, July 5, after a two-day power struggle that saw Rajoub initially deny any knowledge of his firing.

Arafat also sacked last week his police chief Ghazi Jabali, who, like Rajoub, at first defied the order, but then relented, resigning Thursday.

But the Palestinian leader was still coping Sunday with the fallout from the dumping of Rajoub, whose supporters took to the streets in the West Bank town of Hebron, still angry three days after their boss’s ouster.

About 500 people had gathered in Hebron to show their support for Rajoub, taking advantage of the daytime lifting of a curfew by the Israeli army, which has reoccupied almost the entire West Bank.

Arafat had already met overnight with six preventive security officers loyal to Rajoub. That session followed a defiant declaration by 600 West Bank security force members who warned they would not work with the successor Arafat appointed, former Jenin governor Zuheir Manasrah.

A spokesmen for the dissident officers, Captain Sabri Tmezi, said that Rajoub’s supporters remained loyal to Arafat, but made it clear that they wanted the West Bank commander appointed to another post “at least as important.”

Another officer said, “I can assure you he [Arafat] agreed to our proposal” not to install Manasrah as head of the key security branch. For his part, Manasrah refused to comment on the issue.

Meanwhile, Israel and the United States have been putting pressure on Arafat to fire Tirawi, whom they accuse of aiding and ordering anti-Israeli attacks, said Palestinian sources close to Arafat.

Wanted by Israel, Tirawi is currently holed up with the Palestinian leader in his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, which has been reoccupied by Israeli troops for the last two weeks.

Tirawi on July 2 refuted Israel’s charges against him, labeling them “mere lies” designed to undermine the Palestinian leadership and he challenged the Jewish state to back up their claims with evidence.

Tirawi had been involved in security talks with Israel before the breakdown of communications between the two sides with the start of the 21-month-old Palestinian intifada.

On the ground, Israeli occupation troops abducted Sunday two Palestinians near the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said, reported AFP.

Troops searched the Al-Qarara district, east of Khan Yunis, for a few hours before abducting the two men and then withdrawing, they said.

The security sources said it was not clear whether either of the men had an affiliation to any resistance groups. Their identities were not immediately available.

During the day, the Israeli army said it had abducted four other Palestinians wanted for questioning over what the Israelis called their “involvement in terrorist activities.”

One was abducted in Al-Attara, some 10 kilometers (six miles) north of the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem, while a second was picked up in Zeita, some six kilometers [four miles] north of Tulkarem.