Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas sacked three top security chiefs after their failure to stop mortar attacks on settlements in Gaza on Thursday, carried out in defiance of a new cease-fire agreement. National police chief General Saeb al-Ajez, the head of national security, General Abdelrazzak al-Majaida, and the national security head in south Gaza, General Omar Ashur, were all dismissed, political and security sources said.
Based in Gaza, Majaida was the commander of the de facto Palestinian army and was the most senior official in the myriad security apparatuses.
Abbas was furious after members of Hamas were able to fire more than 30 mortar shells and rockets at Jewish settlements, prompting Israel to cancel a meeting to discuss the implementation of agreements reached at this week's landmark peace summit in Egypt.
Some 4,000 Palestinian security forces have recently been deployed in Gaza with specific instructions to prevent such attacks.
With warnings from Israel ringing in his ear that the firing constituted a first real test of his commitment to the cease-fire agreed at the summit, Abbas told the forces to meet their responsibilities.
"President Abbas has issued firm instructions to the security services to fully assume their responsibilities in the face of any violations," a statement from his office said.
"The Palestinian leadership repeats its commitment to calm agreed to with the Palestinian factions and the arrangements of the Sharm el-Sheikh summit."
No one was injured in the attacks on the settlements.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said 22 mortar shells landed in the main Gush Katif settlement bloc in southern Gaza over a four-hour period as well as one makeshift Qassam rocket, named after the armed wing of the Islamist movement Hamas.
After a lull of several hours, three more mortars landed in the nearby Morag settlement.
The freedom fighters are meant to be observing a period of calm but a statement by the Ezzedin al Qassam Brigades said the shelling was its "response to the Zionist crimes which are continuing and have cost the lives of Fathi Abu Jazar and Hassan al-Alami".
Alami died on Wednesday in an explosion near his home in the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza, with the Israelis denying any involvement.
Abu Jazar died overnight after a shooting incident on Wednesday in the Rafah region, also in southern Gaza. An Israeli military source said a number of suspected militants had been seen approaching a closed zone but said troops had responded by firing warning shots into the air "and did not identify a hit."
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit with Abbas on Tuesday that his armed forces would "cease all its military activity against all Palestinians anywhere".
Abbas also declared an end to all attacks on Israelis in a bid to draw a line under the four-year armed Palestinian uprising which has claimed more than 4,700 lives.
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