Gaza: Echoes of Iraq

W h

en a 200-lb. bomb buried in a rutted road took out a U.S. embassy convoy in Gaza last week, killing three Americans, the carnage brought to mind Iraq. It was the first time Americans, rather than Israelis, were fatally targeted by Palestinians inside the occupied territories. Unlike most suicide attacks in the region—but as is often the case in the "Sunni triangle" north of Baghdad—no group claimed responsibility. That left investigators wondering who might be behind the bombing—and what it might portend.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the other usual suspects denied involvement, saying their quarrel is with Israel alone. A senior Palestinian security source points the finger at a new culprit: the Arab Liberation Front (A.L.F.), a small p.l.o. group once backed by Saddam Hussein. This source tells Time that the A.L.F. may have paid malcontents in Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction to strike at the U.S. to punish the occupiers of Iraq. A.L.F. officials would not comment. But any such link between Iraq and Palestinian violence would be a disturbing new development.

Israeli intelligence officials, however, believe the attack may have been the work of Fatah chiefs in the Gaza town of Rafah, who are feuding with Arafat over his efforts to slow the traffic in weapons smuggled there through tunnels running under the Egyptian border. The attack, they say, was meant to hurt Arafat's global standing, to force him to back off. It certainly put Arafat in a tight spot. The U.S., which sent an fbi team to investigate the bombing, blamed the Palestinian leader for hindering progress against terrorism by blocking the appointment of an Interior Minister to coordinate security operations. Arafat responded by arresting eight suspects, mostly activists of the Popular Resistance Committees, a faction crowded with former members of his security forces and disgruntled Fatah men. Still, Palestinian security officials fear the attacks on Americans may not be over.