GAZA – Arrangements are underway to engage 3,000 security officers from the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in the security agencies of the Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas official said on Monday.
The arrangements are part of reconciliation discussions between Hamas movement and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, Hamas Cabinet Secretary, Abdul-Salam Siam, said in a press statement.
He added that “the security situation in Gaza will not change unless a unity government is formed. Only 3,000 security men will be engaged in the current security forces in Gaza.
Since rival Palestinian Hamas movement and Fatah party signed a reconciliation agreement last month, both parties have been discussing on how to form a national unity government that would prepare for general elections.
The new understandings would end a Palestinian political rift that started when Hamas took over Gaza in June 2007 after routing forces loyal to Abbas who now rules the West Bank.
Discussions on the formation of the unity government will be started when Azzam Al-Ahmad, a Fatah official in charge of the reconciliation file, arrives in Gaza later this week.
Under the reconciliation agreement, the unity government should be formed within five weeks since the signing of the deal.
The talks on forming a transitional unity government for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will start this week, a senior Hamas movement official said.
Musa Abu Marzooq, a Senior Hamas leader, said in Gaza that Azzam el-Ahmad, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) delegation for reconciliation talks with Hamas, will arrive in Gaza on Sunday.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that the next few days will witness concrete steps to implement a recent reconciliation deal between the Fatah party and the Hamas movement.
“We will start to implement what we have agreed upon during the upcoming few days,” Abbas told a meeting marking the founding of Jerusalem Fund in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Xinhua/NAN)
