Hamas sources said Interior Minister Fathi Hamad has imposed orders that
ban operations without the approval of the Hamas leadership. The sources
said Hamad's decision has been endorsed by Hamas military chief of staff
Ahmed Jabari.
"There is a growing feeling that without iron discipline we will enter
another confrontation with the Zionist enemy [Israel] before we are ready,"
a Hamas source said.
Two of the dismissed commanders were identified as Imad Akel and Bassam Issa.
Akel and Issa served as Hamas brigade commanders in the central Gaza Strip
and were blamed for failing to follow orders from Jabari.
The sources said Akel and Issa, however, continued to wield power within
Hamas's military. They said the two officers have organized other combatants
and were refusing to follow orders from a Hamas leadership that they assert
was being controlled by Iran.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, blamed for the Hamas failure
to block Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, has increased control over the
military in the Gaza Strip. The sources said IRGC's liasion in Lebanon,
Hassan Mahdawi, has been working to restructure the Hamas military in an
effort similar to that undergone by Hizbullah following the 2006 war with
Israel.
A key IRGC recommendation was that Hamad maintain responsibility for
Hamas's Executive Force and police, which comprise most of the security
units in the Gaza Strip. Several Hamas commanders have objected to being
held accountable to Hamad, who replaced Said Siyam, killed during the war
with Israel.
Hamad, appointed in May 2009, has pledged to establish civilian control
over the security forces. He has enacted regulations that ban police and EF
patrols from driving with dark windows or speeding unless they are in
pursuit of suspects.