Factions worried that Youssef will escalate confrontation

Palestinian factions, including Hamas, are worried that confrontation with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) will be escalated with Nasser Youssef, a general who cracked down on Hamas when Gaza and the West Bank were handed to the Palestinians, appointed as interior minister.

A senior Hamas leader told Gulf News: "There is no way back to the 1996 situation when the Palestinian security services cracked down on Hamas arresting dozens of its leaders and members, in addition to the clashes with the group which led to the death of 13 members in one incident."

He added that Hamas believed that "history shouldnever go back, and "we will never let the PNA arrest and torture us".

However, the group asserted at the same time it will not accept any internal feuding. The leader said the PNA succeeded in cracking down on Hamas in 1996 because the group adopted a policy of patience to avoid a civil war.

General Youssef is back to the spotlight again as the PNA's top security chief, interior minister, after years of absence. He was the general director of the Palestinian security, but Arafat sacked him for travelling to the United States in secret without informing him.

Youssef was born in 1943 in Jesr Al Majame village, close to Bissan, northern Palestine.

He finished high school in Jordan, and graduated from the Lebanese University in Beirut majoring in Islamic economy, and then he got his master in Islamic history from the same university. Because of his background, Arafat assigned him to negotiate with Hamas in Khartoum in the early nineties.

Nasser Youssef is a nom de guerre; his given name is Mustfa Salem Al Bashtawi.

"He was a fighter in many battles of the Palestinian revolution and he was high ranking leader," source close to Yousif said. "He also was a cofounder of Fatah." He finished his military education in Russia and China.

Yousif was one on the closest persons to Arafat during the internal feuding within Fatah in the eighties "He fought to boost the unity of the faction," the source said.