A ban has been lifted on Palestinian policemen growing beards, a symbol of Islamic piety, a spokesman for Interior Minister Sayed Sayam of Hamas has said.
Military regulations banning beards have been largely ignored anyway since a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000. But with the inauguration of a Hamas government last week, the rule has been formally ended, said spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal.
"They will have to keep their beards neat and appear well-groomed," Abu Hilal said on Monday.
Hamas, a militant Islamic group, crushed the long-dominant Fatah faction in a parliamentary election in January.
One officer, who declined to be identified, told Reuters that although no policemen had been fined or imprisoned recently for growing beards, some had received notices ordering them to shave.
Abu Hilal said Sayam "ordered that mistreatment be stopped immediately and that [policemen] be allowed to grow their beards."
Hamas plans to rebuild PA policeHamas plans to rebuild the Palestinian police force in an effort to restore law and order to the Palestinian street, several senior Palestinian Authority officials said this week.
Meanwhile, clashes between Hamas and Fatah are already under way, and expected to get worse.
The new Palestinian interior minister, Hamas' Sayed Sayam, emphasized the role of the police force outlined his short-term goals at a press conference in Gaza on Sunday.
"We must restore confidence in the police service and restore the police's deterrent power, and the nation must support police in the fulfillment of its duties," Sayam said.
Until now, the police force was considered a marginal arm of the Palestinian security services that is directly accountable to the Interior Ministry.
But Hamas plans to transform it into the primary law-enforcement authority, as well as recruit activists from the organization.
A revitalized police force is expected to bring Hamas into close contact with average Palestinians, while staying away from sensitive topics such as arresting terror suspects or activists in other Palestinian organizations, which Hamas does not plan to do, Sayam said.
Hamas may be motivated to take on the police force partly because it realizes that at this stage, it cannot take control of the stronger security services such as the Preventive Security Service in Gaza.
Sayam said the Interior Ministry would work with prominent social organizations, heads of large clans, and local media - which Sayam asked "to stop calling the government 'the Hamas government' and start calling it 'the government of the Palestinian people'."
Meanwhile, the deaths of three Palestinians in a Friday gun battle in Gaza between the Fatah-controlled Preventive Security Service and Hamas-supported Popular Resistance Committees revealed the region's power struggles.
Occurring just two days after the new Hamas government was sworn in, the shoot-out came shortly after PRC leader Abu Yusuf Abu Quka was killed by a bomb in Gaza City.
Leaders of the PRC, which serves as a Hamas front organization, transformed Abu Quka's funeral into a protest against Fatah and the Preventive Security Service, and overtly accused security services leaders of assassinating him.
