Palestinian militants raid PA offices

About 15 members of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, fired in the air at the entrance to Nablus Governor Mohammed al-Alul's office and stormed into the Interior Ministry in the West Bank city.

Witnesses said an employee at the governor's office was slightly wounded in the incident. A spokesman for the brigades said the gunmen shot him accidentally.

The militants, wanted by Israel, shouted out demands for jobs and Palestinian Authority guarantees of their safety under any deal to transfer Nablus, now encircled and periodically raided by Israeli troops, to Palestinian security control.

Militants fear a deal on a Nablus pullback would include a demand they hand over their weapons to the Palestinian Authority, making them more vulnerable should Israel decide to go after them.

The gunmen bolted after Palestinian police were called to the scene, the witnesses said.

Israel has pulled forces away from two West Bank cities, Jericho and Tulkarm, and pledged to pull back from three more in a bid to strengthen Abbas's hand against militants in Fatah as well as the rival Islamist Hamas movement.

Abbas declared a ceasefire along with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in February and persuaded militants to respect the deal, although it has been prone to scattered violations. But Abbas has struggled to impose internal law and order.

In the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Fatah militants demanding jobs in the Palestinian police force blocked a road leading to the Egyptian border for a second day.

The militants, members of the Fatah Hawks group, dispersed after Palestinian officials agreed to set up a committee to look into their demands.

Abbas hopes to incorporate militants into the Palestinian security forces, rejecting Sharon's demands to disarm them and dismantle their organisations as stipulated by a US-backed peace "road map."

In an interview with al-Arabiya television on Saturday, Abbas said cracking down on militant groups would lead to civil war. Militants have spearheaded a battle for statehood in more than four years of violence with Israel.