PA chief of staff: We must be ready to retake Hamas-ruled Gaza by force
"RAMALLAH - The Palestinian Authority must be ready to use force against Hamas in Gaza "to reunify the homeland," said the head of PA forces in the West Bank, Gen. Dhiab al-Ali (Abu al-Fatah), considered the Palestinian chief of staff.
"If Gaza remains mutinous, the Palestinian Authority will have no choice but to use force against it," Ali said in a recent interview with Haaretz at his Ramallah offices......
"There haven't yet been consultations with the Israelis on the issue," Ali said. "We hope we won't need that option - for us it's the last choice for unifying the homeland - but we must be prepared to implement it. If you want to transport forces [to Gaza] you need different weapons and different capabilities [than those currently available]. There must be Israeli, Jordanian and Egyptian agreement. But if circumstances permit then we must reunify the homeland."
No senior PA official close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has ever expressed such views to the media, and especially not shortly before a Fatah delegation is set to attend talks in Cairo on a possible detente with Hamas. A similar Hamas delegation is scheduled to talk with Egyptian officials early next month, and Egypt may try to hold a reconciliation summit in Cairo after the holiday of Id al-Fitr......
"During my term we reorganized the National Security organization. Ninety percent of the officers were replaced with younger officers," Ali says.
His officers undergo training in Jericho, under U.S. supervision and assistance headed by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, the U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the PA. Soldiers are trained in Jericho and Jordan. Two battalions have completed the new training regimen so far. A third left for Jordan on Thursday and a fourth is scheduled to train there in the future. Ali has about 7,500 soldiers under his command.
He does not conceal his anger over Israel's responses to his requests for arms and ammunition, or the restrictions on the movement of PA forces in the West Bank.
"There is cooperation with Israel," Ali says. "We prevented dozens of terror attacks just this year." "
"RAMALLAH - The Palestinian Authority must be ready to use force against Hamas in Gaza "to reunify the homeland," said the head of PA forces in the West Bank, Gen. Dhiab al-Ali (Abu al-Fatah), considered the Palestinian chief of staff.
"If Gaza remains mutinous, the Palestinian Authority will have no choice but to use force against it," Ali said in a recent interview with Haaretz at his Ramallah offices......
"There haven't yet been consultations with the Israelis on the issue," Ali said. "We hope we won't need that option - for us it's the last choice for unifying the homeland - but we must be prepared to implement it. If you want to transport forces [to Gaza] you need different weapons and different capabilities [than those currently available]. There must be Israeli, Jordanian and Egyptian agreement. But if circumstances permit then we must reunify the homeland."
No senior PA official close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has ever expressed such views to the media, and especially not shortly before a Fatah delegation is set to attend talks in Cairo on a possible detente with Hamas. A similar Hamas delegation is scheduled to talk with Egyptian officials early next month, and Egypt may try to hold a reconciliation summit in Cairo after the holiday of Id al-Fitr......
"During my term we reorganized the National Security organization. Ninety percent of the officers were replaced with younger officers," Ali says.
His officers undergo training in Jericho, under U.S. supervision and assistance headed by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, the U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the PA. Soldiers are trained in Jericho and Jordan. Two battalions have completed the new training regimen so far. A third left for Jordan on Thursday and a fourth is scheduled to train there in the future. Ali has about 7,500 soldiers under his command.
He does not conceal his anger over Israel's responses to his requests for arms and ammunition, or the restrictions on the movement of PA forces in the West Bank.
"There is cooperation with Israel," Ali says. "We prevented dozens of terror attacks just this year." "
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