GAZA CITY — The Palestinian Authority has ruled out the prospect
that it would disarm insurgency groups in the West Bank or Gaza Strip.
The PA assertion came in wake of a May 2 clash between Hamas and
security forces in which Egypt obtained the release of detained insurgents.
Officials said Hamas and other insurgency groups demanded a pledge that the
PA would not seek their arrest or weapons.
"We have no intention of withdrawing weapons of resistance," Col. Rashid
Abu Shback, the director of the Preventive Security Apparatus in the Gaza
Strip, said.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Abu Shback rejected Israeli calls for
disarming insurgents before the handover of West Bank cities to the PA.
Three West Bank cities remain under Israeli security control.
Abu Shback said the PA would not force insurgents to surrender their
weapons. At the same time, he said the groups have pledged not to show their
weapons in public as part of a ceasefire accord reached in March 2005.
"Weapons of resistance should not be displayed in the streets," Abu
Shback said. "Weapons of resistance should not be used in family feuds.
Weapons of
resistance should not kill a woman who goes out with her fiance."
In April, Hamas operatives killed a woman near Gaza City on charges of
immoral behavior. Hamas sources later acknowledged that the charges were
bogus. The PA did not arrest any suspects.
[On Thursday, Israeli authorities found a Kassam-class short-range
missile on top of a building in the Israeli community of Nevei Dekalim in
the central Gaza Strip. The missile was defused and nobody was injured.
Later, Israeli authorities closed the Karni border terminal in the eastern
Gaza Strip in wake of an alert of an imminent insurgency attack.]
Abu Shback's assurance to insurgents was not confirmed by Interior
Minister Nasser Yusef. Yusef, Abu Shback's superior, was said to have
reassured Israeli military commanders that fugitives in the northern West
Bank towns of Jericho and Tulkarm would be disarmed.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said the PA would act to prevent chaos and the
proliferation of weapons. But he added that security agencies would avoid
confrontation with insurgency groups.
"Israelis want Palestinian blood to be spilled, and we don't accept
that," Abbas was quoted by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa as
saying. "This is a red line. We run our security in our own way, for our
people's protection. We work day and night. There are obstacles and progress
is slow."
