MIDEAST . . . ARAFAT'S ARMY GIRDS FOR BATTLE

At least seven armed groups of the Fatah Hawks, allies of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, have formed in the Gaza Strip as strike forces against the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants threatening to intensify attacks on Arafat's budding Palestinian government. Their threat comes in response to the shootingdeaths of 14 Islamic protestersby PLO police in Gaza City Friday. (Today, gunmen in a Gaza City orange grove shot and killed a Palestinian secret police captain, the first time an officer had been ambushed.)Arafat, in fact, interspersed dozens of masked Fatah Hawks at a rally of 10,000 supporters yesterday, and Gaza's police chief today suggested they would soon be sent out against the militants, which oppose peace with Israel. "There's an effort to have some sort of reconciliation between the PLO and Hamas, and it's failing," saysTIME Jerusalem Bureau Chief Lisa Beyer. "The Fatah Hawks are not bound by laws like police -- they are a militia. Their job is to back Fatah (Arafat's nom de guerre) -- and who is Fatah's enemy? Hamas. They're careening toward civil war."Post your opinion on theInternationalbulletin board.