The Palestine Liberation Organization’s influence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been sagging lately, as Palestinians there virtually ignore specific PLO orders to stop executing fellow Arabs believed to be collaborating with Israeli authorities.
The focus of internal Palestinian terrorism has been in the Gaza Strip town of Rafah, where two men were hacked to death with axes Sunday by masked assailants, The killings brought to four the number of Rafah residents killed in one week.
The Unified Command of the Palestinian uprising reportedly is deeply troubled by this uncontrolled wave of politically inspired executions.
PLO leader Yasir Arafat repeatedly has spoken out against the increased violence. A letter to that effect in his own handwriting has been distributed in the Unified Command repeated the call. But neither has been to any avail.
The killings indicate a growing rift inside the Palestinian community, particularly between the PLO and Hamas, the Islamic fundamentalist movement.
Ostensibly, the killings are perpetrated to punish those who collaborate with the Israeli authorities. But according to Israeli officials, many of the killings have had nothing to do with Israel and have simply been used to “settle accounts,” sometimes with no political background at all.
According to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, 110 Palestinians were murdered by fellow Arabs in the territories form the beginning of the uprising in December 1987 through Sept. 13 of this year.
The number of killings has escalated sharply in recent weeks, averaging 16 per month form June to August, compared to two a month during the first year of the uprising.
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