Palestinian militant leader held by Arafat

Yasser Arafat's security forces announced that they had arrested the head of the militant faction that carried out the first assassination by Arabs of an Israeli cabinet minister in what appeared to be a significant new strategic manoeuvre by the stranded Palestinian leader.

Israel has been demanding the arrest of Ahmed Saadat, the secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), since Rechavam Ze'evi, the ultra-nationalist Israeli tourism minister, was shot dead by guerrillas in a Jerusalem hotel in October.

The arrest – which came as another two Israelis, a woman and a 72-year-old man, were killed by Palestinian gunmen on the West Bank last night – is an attempt by the Palestinian leadership to steal the initiative from Israel's prime minister Ariel Sharon, who has confined Mr Arafat to the West Bank town of Ramallah for weeks.

"This will not produce a breakthrough in the peace process," Lieutenant-Colonel Mohammed Dahlan, one of Mr Arafat's top security aides, told al-Jazeera television. "But we are taking a step in the international arena to reveal the tricks being played by Sharon."

The United States and other mediators pushing for a ceasefire have been demanding that Mr Arafat round up wanted militants, warning that Israel could oust him from the occupied territories if he fails to comply. They will be closely monitoring Mr Saadat's fate.

Israel reacted sceptically, noting that Palestinian Authority leaders have frequently declared that they had arrested wanted militants only to release them shortly afterwards. "If such a major strategic shift has occurred, it would be something positive but, on the basis of past experience, we have found that most Palestinian incarcerations are false," said an Israeli spokesman.

It is doubtful whether the arrest of Mr Saadat will be enough to prompt Mr Sharon to release the trapped Mr Arafat. The Israeli premier has many other demands, including the dismantling of militant organisations and the arrest of two of the guerrillas who killed Ze'evi, who are still in hiding.

Ze'evi's killing infuriated Mr Sharon, who replied with the most severe military invasion of Palestinian-run areas of the West Bank since the intifada began in September 2000, sending the conflict to new depths.

The murder was carried by the PFLP in retaliation for the assassination of their previous leader, Abu Ali Mustafa, a senior PLO official blown up seven weeks earlier by Israeli helicopter missiles fired through his office window in Ramallah. Israeli security officials say the PFLP cell that killed Ze'evi – a man loathed in the Arab world for his racist beliefs – was dispatched by Mr Saadat.

His arrest is a risky move by Arafat, especially if it leads to Mr Saadat's jailing. The killing of Ze'evi was almost universally seen by Palestinians as justified revenge for the assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa, one of the PLO's most senior officials. His picture can be seen everywhere in the West Bank and Gaza.

It was doubtful last night whether the latest manoeuvre by Mr Arafat – against whom Mr Sharon has launched an international publicity drive to paint him as an incorrigible terrorist leader newly allied with Iran – will stop the current slide back to bloodshed and mayhem.

The last 48 hours has seen the assassination by Israel of Raed al-Karmi, a leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade guerrilla group, and the retaliatory killing of an Israeli soldier.

This was followed last night by the killing near Bethlehem of Avi Boaz, 72, an Israeli with US citizenship from the West Bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim. Later, an Israeli women was killed and another seriously injured when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on their car near a Jewish settlement in north Jerusalem.