The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, dismissed three security commanders on Thursday after a Hamas mortar barrage of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, just two days after the ceasefire declaration.
In response, the Israeli government called off a meeting with senior Palestinians to discuss an array of confidence-building measures, including lifting some roadblocks and releasing several hundred prisoners.
But it said it would not undermine confidence in Abbas’s commitment to curb violence, provided the Palestinian security forces dealt with those responsible.
Abbas ordered Palestinian Authority forces to prevent further attacks, saying they were against the national interest.
He said he was ”studying a series of measures and decisions to be taken to restore order and rule of law”.
He then dismissed about 20 senior security officers, including the head of public security in the occupied territories, Abdel Razek al-Majaydeh, the commander of security forces in southern Gaza, Omar Ashour, and the chief of the Palestinian police, Saeb al-Ajez, who told The Guardian last month that he doubted his men had the will to prevent Hamas and other armed groups attacking Israeli targets.
The Palestinian Cabinet Secretary, Hassan Abu Libdeh, said Abbas had taken ”punitive measures against officers who did not undertake their responsibilities, which led to the latest developments in Gaza”.
He added: ”These are very dangerous developments, and they violate the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority.
”The Palestinian Authority will not tolerate any actions that will sabotage the agreement reached with Israelis on a mutual ceasefire.”
Hamas claimed responsibility for firing at least 25 mortar shells on Thursday, most of which fell into Neve Dekalim settlement without causing casualties. It said the attacks were in response to Israel killing a Palestinian man who walked near the fence around Atzoma settlement on Wednesday.
Abu Libdeh said Abbas was due to travel to the Gaza Strip on Friday to tell Hamas it was expected to abide by the temporary truce it agreed last month and to press it to commit itself to a permanent ceasefire, following the Israeli and Palestinian declarations on Tuesday of a cessation of hostilities.
Abbas’s problem in turning his fractured and corrupted security organisations into a reliable force was demonstrated on Thursday when dozens of armed men broke into a Gaza city prison, killing three inmates in a clan feud. – Guardian Unlimited Â