GAZA CITY — The Hamas-led government has established a security agency
composed of members of insurgency groups.
The new unnamed security agency was announced amid the Interior Ministry
failure to halt the rising rate of shootings and abductions in the Gaza
Strip and West Bank. Many of those involved in the violence have been Fatah
and related gunmen, Middle East Newsline reported.
"We are going to beat with an iron fist all the people and groups that
are acting illegally," Siyam, who stressed he was not referring to attacks
on Israel, said.
Officials said Interior Minister Said Siyyam has ordered the formation
of an anti-crime squad to battle abductions and shootings in the Gaza Strip.
They said Siyyam planned to hire gunmen from such groups as Fatah, Hamas and
Islamic Jihad.
"This force is going to include the elite of our sons from the freedom
fighters and the holy warriors and the best men we have," Interior Ministry
spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said. "It's going to include members of all the
resistance branches."
Siyyam has sought to assuage fears that Fatah members would be expelled
from the 70,000-strong PA police and security forces. On Thursday, Siyyam
appointed the commander of the Fatah-aligned Popular Resistance Committees,
Jamal Abu Samhadana, director-general of the Interior Ministry.
The PRC, which manufactures missiles for attacks on Israel, was said to
be one of the most active insurgency groups in the Gaza Strip. Comprised of
both Fatah and Hamas defectors, PRC claimed responsibility for the bombing
of a U.S. embassy convoy in 2003 in which three American security guards
were killed.
Samhadana, who has been targeted by Israel, was promoted to colonel. The
Interior Ministry was meant to control the police, civil defense and
Preventive Security Apparatus, but in March PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
granted such authority to PSA chief Rashid Abu Shback.
