13/10/2008
The Palestinian Authority is expected to deploy a battalion of security forces to the occupied West Bank city of Al-Khalil Friday, Palestinian sources said Sunday. The move will be coordinated with Israel, and the 700 troops will handle security operations among the city's Palestinian population.
Israeli security forces confirmed an agreement is in the works, but said the Palestinian timetable is somewhat optimistic. If the Palestinian sources are correct, the troops will move into their new quarters Friday, which falls during the intermediate days of the Sukkot holiday - when thousands of Israeli Jews are expected to visit the Israeli-occupied territory in Al-Khalil, especially the Cave of the Patriarchs.
The armed battalion is the second unit of the Palestinian National Security Forces to undergo US training in Jordan, under the supervision of the U.S. security coordinator in the region, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton. It has 650 to 700 soldiers and officers, and 150 vehicles.
Samih al-Sifi, the commander of the security forces, said the deployment does not mean the Palestinian Authority is taking security responsibility for the Palestinian part of Al-Khalil. He said Israel authorized the PA to restore order and security in the city but that there would be no wide-scale operations, only focused ones. He said the operations would begin only after Sukkot, on October 22.
Some 600 to 700 Palestinian police generally patrol Al-Khalil, and doubling that number - especially since the new troops are well-trained - can be expected to improve the PA's hold on the city.
Four months ago, at American urging, Israel and the PA began to return full security control of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin to the PA. For the past two months, the Palestinians have been asking to expand the Jenin model to Al-Khalil. Israel and the United States held back, primarily because they fear clashes between PA forces and Israeli settlers. It appears that Israel has now decided to accede to the Palestinians' request, albeit to a limited extent and without actually transferring security responsibility to the PA.
Israeli security officials said the PA is interested in bolstering its police presence in Al-Khalil partly because of the influence of wealthy Palestinian residents, who constitute a mainstay of support for Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and partly because the PA sees Al-Khalil as an area where Hamas is relatively strong, and it wants to erode the rival movement's power in the city.
The Palestinian Authority is expected to deploy a battalion of security forces to the occupied West Bank city of Al-Khalil Friday, Palestinian sources said Sunday. The move will be coordinated with Israel, and the 700 troops will handle security operations among the city's Palestinian population.
Israeli security forces confirmed an agreement is in the works, but said the Palestinian timetable is somewhat optimistic. If the Palestinian sources are correct, the troops will move into their new quarters Friday, which falls during the intermediate days of the Sukkot holiday - when thousands of Israeli Jews are expected to visit the Israeli-occupied territory in Al-Khalil, especially the Cave of the Patriarchs.
The armed battalion is the second unit of the Palestinian National Security Forces to undergo US training in Jordan, under the supervision of the U.S. security coordinator in the region, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton. It has 650 to 700 soldiers and officers, and 150 vehicles.
Samih al-Sifi, the commander of the security forces, said the deployment does not mean the Palestinian Authority is taking security responsibility for the Palestinian part of Al-Khalil. He said Israel authorized the PA to restore order and security in the city but that there would be no wide-scale operations, only focused ones. He said the operations would begin only after Sukkot, on October 22.
Some 600 to 700 Palestinian police generally patrol Al-Khalil, and doubling that number - especially since the new troops are well-trained - can be expected to improve the PA's hold on the city.
Four months ago, at American urging, Israel and the PA began to return full security control of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin to the PA. For the past two months, the Palestinians have been asking to expand the Jenin model to Al-Khalil. Israel and the United States held back, primarily because they fear clashes between PA forces and Israeli settlers. It appears that Israel has now decided to accede to the Palestinians' request, albeit to a limited extent and without actually transferring security responsibility to the PA.
Israeli security officials said the PA is interested in bolstering its police presence in Al-Khalil partly because of the influence of wealthy Palestinian residents, who constitute a mainstay of support for Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and partly because the PA sees Al-Khalil as an area where Hamas is relatively strong, and it wants to erode the rival movement's power in the city.
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In a televised interview, the spokesman of Hamas Movement in Gaza Fawzi Barhoum categorically denied the PA security allegations of unearthing an explosives factory belong to Hamas in Al-Khalil city, and intended to be used against the PA institutions.
"It is not wrong for the Palestinian resistance and the Qassam Brigades to possess weapons to defend themselves and to protect the Palestinian people in the West Bank which the IOF troops raid day and night without any resistance [from the PA security forces]", asserted Barhoum.
Barhoum was reacting to the statements of the PA intelligence director in the West Bank Akel Al-Sa'adi who alleged that his men seized big cache of weapons and explosives materials belonging to Hamas in Al-Khalil city.
The security coordination between the PA security apparatuses and the Israeli security departments had intensified over the past year, particularly after Hamas Movement controlled security in the Gaza Strip, that prompted a number of Israeli army officers to express their satisfaction over the performance of the PA security forces in quelling the resistance factions in the West Bank.
The PA caretaker government of premier Ismael Haneyya has unequivocally accused high-ranking officials in the PA security forces in the West Bank of serving the Israeli agenda and or preserving security of the occupation, stressing that those officers must be prosecuted.
For his part, the famous political science professor in Al-Najah University Dr. Abdul Satter Qasem deplored the PA security allegations, stressing the Palestinian people right to manufacture explosives and weapons and use them against the Israeli occupation as long as they occupy Palestine.
"If we buy the PA security forces allegations that the weapons belong to Hamas, and that Hamas planned to use them against the PA institutions, then we have the right to ask why the PA security forces pursued Palestinian resistance fighters and seized their weapons before June, 14, 2007 (the day when Hamas controlled the Gaza Strip)?", said Qasem.
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