Hamas to form own police force in Gaza Strip

The Palestinian minister of the interior and national security, Saeed Seyam of Hamas, announced yesterday the formation of a new armed "operational force" at his ministry that will constitute a police arm directly subordinate to him. Seyam said the new force would "spearhead" the restoration of law and order in Gaza and would be based on select police officers from the existing security services, as well as operatives from Hamas' military wing - the Iz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades - and senior members of other organizations active in Gaza during the intifada that have sworn allegiance to the Hamas government.

"This is a new force that will assist the Palestinian police in maintaining order and security and it is part of a comprehensive plan aimed at restoring quiet and safety and public order to the streets of Gaza," Seyam said.

Speaking at the Al-Omari Mosque to the assembled heads of the Gaza Strip's major clans, Seyam promised "to put down with an iron fist any entity that threatens public order and anyone who uses the weapon of resistance, the weapon of the clan and the weapon of the organization in the internal conflicts in the Strip or against institutions of the Palestinian Authority and also for criminal purposes."

Seyam also announced the appointment of Jamal Abu Samhadana as "the inspector general of the interior ministry and the person in charge of rehabilitating the security services." Abu Samhadana is the founder of the Popular Resistance Committees in the Gaza Strip and a former Fatah member who became a Hamas supporter during the course of the intifada. [See story, Page 2]

Seyam told the clan leaders: "We have agreed with the armed factions and all the clans to remove the organizational and clan covering from those who use weapons against PA institutions and law enforcement personnel. We will rely on the law and not on harassment of the weak to strengthen the strong. The path is difficult, but with the support of the public and common sense we can carry out the program," he said.

Associates of Seyam said off the record that his words had been aimed at Fatah leaders in the Gaza Strip, primarily the heads of the Palestinian Preventive Security force and the groups supporting Fatah's strongman in the Strip, Mohammed Dahlan.

A significant number of senior members of the armed factions in Gaza are, in any event, Palestinian policemen who receive salaries from the PA budget. Thus, it will not be necessary to obtain large sums of money to bankroll the new force, through which Seyam and the Hamas government will be able to operate the Iz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades officially.

Seyam's announcement provides a counterweight to a series of moves by the office of the presidency headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen),

who issued a presidential order appointing Rashid Abu Shbak, former chief of preventive security in the Strip, as head of "Internal Security" - a new entity that unites the interior ministry's security agencies, which are ostensibly controled by Hamas but also receive orders directly from Abbas.

Seyam thereby exposed Hamas' tactics regarding the security agencies - focusing on the issue of public order and relying on the heads of Gaza's major clans, headed by the Abu Samhadana clan, which traditionally had been a Fatah supporter. The appointment of Abu Samhadana is certainly designed to placate the clan that is the unchallenged ruler in the southern Gaza Strip.

Furthermore, Seyam wants to use the issue of overcoming anarchy in the Gaza Strip, the issue most troubling residents, as leverage to bolster the government's standing at the expense of Fatah, particularly Dahlan and the preventive security agency. Yesterday, Seyam's associates attributed most of the signs of disorder in the Strip to elements close to Dahlan and to the preventive security agency.

Senior Palestinian officials told Haaretz in recent days that despite the atmosphere of confrontation between Fatah and Hamas, and contrary to the position taken by most Fatah leaders, Abbas himself supports Hamas' moves to improve security in the Strip and Seyam's actions, including the appointment of Abu Samhadana and a series of other sophisticated appointments such as the appointment of Khaled Abu Halal, a senior member Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, as spokesman for the Hamas-controled interior ministry. Abu Halal was previously considered a key figure in Fatah, and upon his appointment, some of Fatah's armed groups in the Strip transferred their allegiance to the Hamas government.

Another factor that has emerged in the past few days is Hamas' intention to rely on the various military branches to counter the force of the security services still under Fatah control. On Wednesday, for example, six factions in the Strip, including the armed wing of Hamas, several groups within the armed wing of Fatah, the Popular Resistance Committees and leftist fronts "pledged allegiance" to the new government and undertook to act in concert with it "to restore law and order to the streets."