'Security chaos' in West Bank and Gaza

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TEL AVIV -- More Palestinians have been killed this year by fellow Palestinians than by Israeli soldiers, according to a Palestinian government report released this week.

In the latest sign that chaos in the Gaza Strip and West Bank is displacing the uprising against Israel at the top of the Palestinian agenda, the Palestinian Authority's Interior Ministry said 219 Palestinians died in internal clashes during the first nine months of 2005, compared with 218 who were killed in battling Israeli forces during the same period.

The report gives the Palestinian Authority more reason to enforce a ban on militants carrying weapons in the open. It comes on the eve of President Mahmoud Abbas' highly touted visit to Washington this week, where he will meet with President Bush.

The situation with Israel remains tense, as Israel suspended all security contacts and sealed off part of the West Bank yesterday after gunmen killed three settlers in the deadliest attack in months.

Israeli security forces also killed a senior Islamic militant as a shaky cease-fire of eight months came under increasing strain, the Reuters news agency reported.

"As a result of [Sunday's] attacks, we are taking defensive action," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

"There is a temporary suspension of contacts between the defense ministry and military personnel and Palestinian counterparts."

The Palestinian report on internecine violence suggests that the greater danger to a fledgling state could come from warring factions within the Palestinian movement.

Palestinian Authority officials say the prohibition on carrying guns is the first step in a drive to collect illegal weapons, a prerequisite for restarting negotiations according to the U.S.-sponsored "road map" to a lasting peace deal with Israel.

"We want to say to our people that illegal arms only bring us trouble and disturb the peace," said Tawfik Abu Khoussa, an Interior Ministry spokesman.