Five masked men broke into a hospital Monday and shot dead a convicted Palestinian collaborator who had been wounded in a grenade attack in his prison cell just hours earlier.

After the shooting, police questioned one of the suspected gunmen who claimed to be a relative of the victim avenging the shame the collaborator had brought to his family, police said.

It was not clear if the gunman was arrested, and the fate of his four accomplices was not known.

Assassinations like that of Mahmoud al Sharef, accused of helping Israel, are relatively common. But this one came amid growing lawlessness in the Palestinian territories that has highlighted police helplessness to rein in violence.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, hundreds of Palestinians rallied Monday in support of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has been under attack for the lawlessness and corruption in the Palestinian territories.

The rally occurred a day after Arab newspapers published unusually sharp comments against Arafat by Mohammed Dahlan, a former Gaza security chief campaigning for reform in Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

"You are the defenders of the sacred land," Arafat told the crowd, praising his supporters for "thwarting the conspiracy" against him.

Dahlan was quoted Sunday by a Kuwaiti newspaper as threatening huge demonstrations in Gaza unless Arafat reforms his government within 10 days.

"Arafat now sits on the bodies and ruins of Palestinians at a time when they most need support," he was quoted as saying.

The Jerusalem daily Al Quds, however, reported Monday that Dahlan denied giving any interview to the Kuwaiti paper.

In the northern Gaza Strip overnight, Israeli troops shot dead three armed Palestinians next to a Jewish settlement.

The Israeli military said a group of men were spotted approaching the settlement's perimeter fence and soldiers opened fire. A joint announcement from militant groups Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades said three of their men were killed in what they called a "heroic operation."

Source: CD/Agencies