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Hamas Sets Up New Intelligence Apparatus | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Photographers surround Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad during the Arab foreign ministers’ meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, July 30, 2007 (AP)


Photographers surround Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad during the Arab foreign ministers' meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, July 30, 2007 (AP)

Photographers surround Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad during the Arab foreign ministers’ meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, July 30, 2007 (AP)

Gaza, Asharq Al-Awsat- ” Hamas, the dismissed Palestinian government led by Ismail Haniyeh recently established a new security apparatus to carry out intelligence tasks in the Gaza Strip which it controls, Asharq Al-Awsat has learned.

This came amid reports that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert might agree to the deployment of Jordan’s Bedouin forces to strengthen Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank, as the political struggle between Fatah and Hamas continues.

Ihab al-Ghusayn, the Interior Ministry spokesman, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the new apparatus would start operating in the coming weeks and pointed out that it would seek to obtain the intelligence information that the other security services need. He added that the purpose of the new security apparatus “is to consolidate the security situation prevailing at present.” After pointing out that the new service would be called the “Internal Security Service”, he said it would include hundreds of elements and would be active in the Gaza Strip’s areas, adding that this apparatus’s move to operate in the West Bank depends on an agreement resulting from internal Palestinian dialogue.

Al-Ghusayn pointed out that his ministry would launch a comprehensive campaign to urge the National Security members and the policemen to return to work and added that the ministry had disbanded the “Preventive Security Service” and allowed its members to join the police. It is recalled that President Abbas had issued a decree saying all the formations established by Haniyeh’s government were illegitimate and illegal.

Meanwhile, the Fatah movement reiterated its rejection of the entry of any Arab force into the Palestinian territories under any pretext, saying that the talk about [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert’s desire to bring in Jordanian forces to back the [Palestinian] Authority [PA] is an attempt to split the Palestinian ranks. Ahmad Abdul Rahman, the Fatah movement’s official spokesman in the West Bank, told “Asharq al-Awsat”: “The PA does not need any force from any Arab country. We asked for international forces to protect our people from the occupation and this is an historic PLO demand.” He added: “The demand for the international forces has nothing to do with the Hamas coup against the legitimacy since this is something that the Palestinians themselves will deal with.”

Abdul Rahman was responding to a yesterday report in the “Jerusalem Post” newspaper saying the Israeli prime minister was thinking of letting Jordanian soldiers deploy in the West Bank to help the PA under Abbas. The newspaper said Olmert’s idea calls for the deployment of “regular units” of Jordanian Bedouins “who have experience in fighting terrorism” and not the Badr Brigade which includes Palestinians. It added that Olmert brought this up during his recent talks with Jordanian King Abdullah II.

Palestinians run past Israeli tanks as they return to the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing with Israel at Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, 30 July 2007 (AFP)

Palestinians run past Israeli tanks as they return to the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing with Israel at Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, 30 July 2007 (AFP)

A Palestinian member of the Hamas police force helps Palestinian families returning from Egypt to Gaza through the Erez crossing, 30 July, 2007 (EPA)

A Palestinian member of the Hamas police force helps Palestinian families returning from Egypt to Gaza through the Erez crossing, 30 July, 2007 (EPA)