Special to WorldTribune.com

GAZA CITY — Hamas has set security priorities, promising to stabilize the Gaza
Strip and groom a force to fight Israel.

Interior Minister Fathi Hamad said Hamas would use its security forces
for domestic stability and protection of the Islamic regime. Hamad said the
20,000-member force would also search for agents of neighboring Israel.

“We will not allow security chaos back into Gaza,” Hamad said.

Addressing a graduation ceremony for police cadets on June 13, Hamad
said security forces would act against Western influence in the Gaza Strip.

The minister, presiding over the graduation of 184 cadets, said Hamas would
groom its commanders into future warriors against Israel.

“There will be no peace with secularism,” Hamad said. “The only peace is
first with God, then with jihad, then with resistance, then with the people
and with martyrs.”

Hamad, who operates his own militia, said the police would be used
against collaborators of Israel. The minister said the police, with a new
academy, would be trained and equipped to become a modern force.

“It is a security institution with a national doctrine that does not
recognize security coordination with the occupation but forms a cover for
the security of the Palestinian, the resister, and the resistance.” Hamad
said.

Hamad said security forces have been trained and ordered to respect
civilians and obey the law. He told the newly-graduated officers that they
would not persecute Gazans for their political affiliation.

“You should commit to the rule that security is for everyone without
discrimination as you are Palestinian police who carry the responsibility of
providing security for your people with no regard to their partisan or
political views,” Hamad said.

  Fathi Hamad, Gaza Strip, Hamas security chief pledges no coordination with Israel