Gunmen ambushed the commander of the Palestinian intelligence service in the Gaza Strip yesterday, wounding him, killing two bodyguards and fuelling fears of widespread chaos.

Brigadier-General Tareq Abu Rajab was acting boss of the General Intelligence Service since its head resigned last month amid unprecedented Palestinian unrest over demands for anti-corruption reform.

Rajab, 58, was close to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, but was not widely seen as taking sides in a power struggle that pits younger leaders -- who say they want change -- against an old guard accused of graft and failing to win a state.

The tussle for control has been triggered by Israel's plan to withdraw troops and settlers next year from the territory it has occupied since the 1967 war.

Gunmen fired from two moving cars as Abu Rajab drove to his office in Gaza City, security sources said. Then they peeled off in different directions in what looked like a carefully plotted attack.

"It's a sinful crime and it is condemned by everybody. We are confident that the criminals will not escape punishment," Rashid Abu Shbak, head of internal security in the Gaza Strip, said after visiting Abu Rajab in hospital.

"The Palestinian Authority must carry out decisive procedures to stop the security deterioration, which has started to harm Palestinian leaders."

The attack on Abu Rajab came just before a Palestinian parliamentary committee was due to present a report expected to call for urgent reforms, to help end the worst internal unrest since Palestinians gained a measure of self-rule a decade ago.

Meanwhile, Israeli Army troops launched a second raid yesterday on the southern Gaza city of al Meghraqa and arrested eight Palestinians, said Palestinian security sources.

Israeli Army forces backed by several tanks and bulldozers invaded the area with intensive gunfire, razing hundreds of donums of the Palestinian residents' cultivated lands, said the sources.

It is the second raid on al Meghraqa by Israeli Army troops stationed nearby. Earlier, Israeli tanks raided al Meghraqa and another southern Gaza city of al Qarara.

Eight Palestinians including a 70-year-old man were arrested in the operation that lasted for two hours. Then troops pulled out, according to witnesses.

(China Daily August 26, 2004)