Palestinian gunmen briefly abducted three foreign church volunteers and militants torched government buildings in the West Bank on Saturday, confronting Yasser Arafat with a fresh wave of lawlessness.
Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat condemned the violence, voicing concern about "sliding into chaos" which could harm international support for the Palestinians.
Armed Palestinians seized the men - an American, a Briton and an Irishman - as they returned to their rented home in Nablus and whisked them away at gunpoint, Palestinian security sources said.
The foreigners, members of a Christian charity believed to be affiliated with the Union Church in the United States, had been teaching English classes in Nablus, said Yousef Saadeh, the head priest at a local Roman Catholic Church, who had hosted them.
They were released unharmed overnight after police surrounded the place where they were being held in the Balata refugee camp, the sources said. "We are safe and doing well," a 22-year-old American who identified himself only as Phil told Reuters after he was freed.
No Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, but security sources suspected they were carried out by a breakaway group of President Arafat's Fatah movement.
The hostage drama lasted little more than two hours but was a reminder of the growing breakdown of law and order in Palestinian areas, that poses the gravest challenge to Arafat's rule since his return from exile 10 years ago.
Militants with grievances against Arafat's political appointees and security services set fire to two Palestinian Authority buildings in the West Bank town of Jenin. Both structures were completely gutted, witnesses said.
It was the latest in an outbreak of internal unrest that began in the Gaza Strip earlier this month with the brief abductions of a police chief and four French aid workers by gunmen demanding anti-corruption reforms.
ARAFAT'S PROBLEMS FAR FROM OVER: Erekat told Reuters the violence was "totally unacceptable" and that nobody should be "taking the law into their own hands".
"I believe these foreigners in Nablus were helping the Palestinian people. What happened will affect international support for the Palestinians. Sliding into chaos will reflect negatively on Palestinian national interests," Erekat said.
Prime Minister Ahmed Qorie, who had threatened to quit over the Gaza chaos, agreed to stay in his post this week after Arafat granted him some powers to reform security services.
But Saturday's surge of internal upheaval showed that his problems were far from over.
After their release, the foreigners took shelter at the home of Palestinian lawmaker Ghassan Shaka, a former Nablus mayor. He said they would not speak to the press. "They are my guests. I want to be sure they will be safe," Shaka told Reuters.
Shaka said he had intervened at Arafat's behest to help free the hostages. He demanded the kidnappers be tried in court, and that Qorie move swiftly to "restore order and the rule of law." As the hostage drama unfolded, militants torched buildings in Jenin early on Saturday in anger at the mayor's refusal to meet their demands.
A leader of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group in Arafat's Fatah movement, said it had torched the governorate because a mayor appointed by Arafat had refused to pay salaries to Al Aqsa gunmen or to co-operate with the group. The group also set alight a one-storey structure housing the Palestinian intelligence service, saying its officers had been spying on Al Aqsa members.
Palestinian calls for reform have multiplied amid a brewing factional power struggle in the Gaza Strip, in anticipation of Israel's planned withdrawal of troops and settlers from the coastal enclave and four West Bank settlements in 2005.
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