Hamas deployed a private army of about 3 000 armed men on the streets of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in a challenge to the authority of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas.
The Islamist group said the force would restore order amid growing security chaos but some Palestinian leaders feared that it would add to the unrest since much of the violence has been caused by rivalries between Hamas and Mr Abbas’s Fatah movement.
Dozens of members of the Hamas force went into action using rifles and clubs to break up a peaceful protest by unemployed teachers. The Hamas men also took up positions outside government ministries and guarding banks, and could be seen patrolling the streets of Gaza city.
The force is led by Jamal Abu Samhadana, who has been responsible for rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel. The Interior Minister, Saeed Seyam, said he had deployed the force to combat a ”state of chaos and anarchy”. Last week three armed men were killed and about a dozen civilians wounded in fighting between Hamas and Fatah. Seyam described the violence as ”a plot to destabilise the Palestinian territories”.
Abbas has tried to retain overall control of the myriad Palestinian security forces. ”The formation of this unit is illegal,” Maher Mekdad, a Fatah spokesperson in Gaza, told the Associated Press (AP). ”It violates the presidential decree.”
Abbas warned Hamas on Wednesday that it could not survive if it continued to resist demands by the United States, Europe and the United Nations to recognise Israel and renounce violence. ”They should be part of the international community. Without that I don’t think they can survive, I don’t think they can deliver,” he told AP during a visit to Strasbourg. ”Whether it is reasonable to expect a change or not we have to give them a chance. They’ve been in the office less than 1½ months. They should take their chance.”
Abbas appealed to the European Parliament on Tuesday for a resumption of foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority, frozen after the Hamas election victory in January. The EU and the US are planning to set up an internationally administered fund to channel aid to the Palestinians while bypassing Hamas.
The Israeli Defence Minister, Amir Peretz, ordered the reopening of the main cargo crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Wednesday to allow in Palestinian exports blocked since January. ”Our war is against terror, not against the residents of the strip,” he said. – Guardian Unlimited Â