BELFAST, Northern Ireland - A major outlawed Protestant group in Northern Ireland has abandoned its 11-year-old truce and is an enemy of the peace once again, Britain declared today in a long-expected verdict against the Ulster Volunteer Force.

The British governor, Peter Hain, said he has received sufficient evidence that the UVF - an underground group supposed to be bolstering Northern Ireland's Good Friday peace accord with a 1994 cease-fire - committed four killings this summer and launched multiple gun and grenade attacks this week against the police and British army.

Hain's Northern Ireland Office said in a statement that UVF members' violence "amounted to a breakdown in their cease-fire" and meant that, as of midnight, Britain no longer accepted it as valid.

The move followed three nights of Protestant riots that ravaged much of Belfast and other Northern Ireland towns.

The rioting, which exploded each night from Saturday to Tuesday morning, left at least 60 police officers and several dozen civilians wounded, none fatally. The trigger - British authorities' refusal Saturday to allow Protestants to parade along the edge of Catholic west Belfast - capped years of growing Protestant opposition to the landmark 1998 peace accord.

NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip - Palestinians looted dozens of greenhouses on Tuesday, walking off with irrigation hoses, water pumps and plastic sheeting in a blow to fledgling efforts to reconstruct the Gaza Strip.American Jewish donors had bought more than 3,000 greenhouses from Israeli settlers in Gaza for $14 million last month and transferred them to the Palestinian Authority. Former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, who brokered the deal, put up $500,000 of his own cash.Palestinian police stood by helplessly Tuesday as looters carted off materials from greenhouses in several settlements, and commanders complained they did not have enough manpower to protect the prized assets. In some instances, there was no security and in others, police even joined the looters, witnesses said."We need at least another 70 soldiers. This is just a joke," said Taysir Haddad, one of 22 security guards assigned to Neve Dekalim, formerly the largest Jewish settlement in Gaza. "We've tried to stop as many people as we can, but they're like locusts."The failure of the security forces to prevent scavenging and looting in the settlements after Israel's troop pullout Monday raised concerns about Gaza's future.Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told his people in a televised speech Tuesday that he would take immediate steps to impose order. "We have one law for everyone and no one is above the law," he said.The Palestinian leader is under intense pressure from his people and the international community to stop the growing lawlessness in Gaza, where rival militant groups are jockeying for power.The greenhouses are a centerpiece of Palestinian plans for rebuilding Gaza after 38 years of Israeli occupation. The Palestinian Authority hopes the high-tech greenhouses left by the Israelis will provide jobs and export income for Gaza's shattered economy.By The Associated Press