Palestinian Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday state of emergency among the security apparatuses after the assassination of General Mousa Arafat, a retired high-ranking security official in Gaza city.
 
The ministry said in a written statement that Interior Minister Nasser Yousef had decided to lead the investigation until the assassins were brought up to justice.

The crime was a dangerous escalation of violence, especially in the current security situation, the statement added.

General Arafat, a nephew to late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who died on Nov. 11 last year in France, was shot dead before dawn on Wednesday when some 100 masked militants stormed into his house in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in southern Gaza city.

The militants threw hand grenades at the house and clashed with his personal bodyguards. General Arafat's son, Manhal, was later abducted and taken to an unknown place.

According to Palestinian security sources, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas held an urgent meeting of the Palestinian National Security Council (PNSC) immediately after the assassination.

Abbas vowed in the meeting to find the killers and the murder would not prevent the restoration of law and order in the Gaza Strip, the sources said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the assassination and kidnap so far and an investigation has been launched by the Palestinian security forces.

General Arafat was nominated as the chief of the military intelligence, then he was promoted as the chief of the Palestinian National Security Forces shortly before Arafat's death.

He retired after Abbas decided to reform the Palestinian security and civil institutions and was later named as a military advisor to Abbas.

Also on Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israel aims to begin the final stage of its military pullout from the Gaza Strip next Monday to complete it as scheduled on Thursday, September 15.

The withdrawal of troops after 38 years of occupation follows the evacuation of 8,500 Gaza settlers and marks the first time Israel will give up Jewish settlements on land Palestinians want for a state.

The final stage of the pullout must still be approved by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet on Sunday. It is expected to pass easily. The question of exactly how the territory will be handed to the Palestinians remained unclear.

Mofaz told reporters that Israeli troops would leave the now-demolished settlements at the same time as the corridor between Gaza and Egypt, which has agreed with Israel to post extra forces to try to stop Gaza militants from smuggling arms.

(Xinhua News Agency, Chinadaily.com via agencies September 8, 2005)