Ceasefire in smoke, heads roll

A Palestinian official said Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh, public security chief for the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian Authority police chief Saeb Al-Ajez and Omar Ashour, commander of the security forces in the southern Gaza Strip, were all dismissed.

Hamas militants said the barrage was to avenge the death of a Palestinian shot dead by Israeli troops from a settlement on Wednesday. There were no casualties in the attacks by militants who have refused to participate in Abbas’s ceasefire gesture and plans for him to reconvene with Sharon next week at the Israeli leader’s desert ranch remained in place.

In another reminder of chaos in the Palestinian street challenging Abbas, dozens of gunmen including Hamas militants stormed into a Gaza City prison on Thursday and shot dead three inmates in a settling of scores between feuding clans.

Hamas, with other militant groups had maintained a tacit truce for weeks to give Abbas a chance to start negotiating with Israel, insisted it was not defying Abbas with the mortar salvoes but only responding to Israeli ‘‘aggression’’.

Abbas’s office said: ‘‘President Abbas has given orders to security chiefs to assume responsibility to prevent any breach in agreements to protect the national interest.’’

A senior Israeli official said Abbas had to crack down on armed factions quickly or risk the collapse of the calm seen as crucial to launching a US-devised peace ‘‘roadmap’’ that charts steps to a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied territories. ‘‘He must take real steps to stop and arrest these people or there can be no quiet or stability or ceasefire. We are not ganging up on Abbas but the time for ceremonies is over, time is running short,’’ said the official. —Reuters