Hamas is seeking to incorporate its 10,000 police officers into a new U.S.-backed Palestinian administration for Gaza.
– Islamist group Hamas retains control of just under half of Gaza following an October ceasefire deal.
– The agreement ties further Israeli troop withdrawals to Hamas giving up its weapons.
– The 20-point plan to end the war, now in its second phase, calls for the governance of Gaza to be handed to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a Palestinian technocratic body with U.S. oversight that is meant to exclude Hamas.
– Gaza’s Hamas-run government urged its more than 40,000 civil servants and security personnel to cooperate with the NCAG but assured them it was working to incorporate them into the new government.
– That would include the roughly 10,000-strong Hamas-run police force, a demand that has not been previously reported.
– Many of them have been patrolling Gaza as Hamas reasserts its grip in areas under its control.
– Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem told, the group was prepared to hand over governance to the 15-member NCAG and its chair, Ali Shaath, with immediate effect.
– “We (have) full confidence that it will operate on the basis of benefiting from qualified personnel and not wasting the rights of anyone who worked during the previous period,” Qassem said, referring to the inclusion of the 40,000 personnel.
– Hamas is open to the NCAG restructuring ministries and sending some workers into retirement.
– Another issue was whether Sami Nasman, the former Palestinian Authority general assigned to oversee security under the NCAG, would be able to operate effectively.
– Nasman, originally from Gaza, moved to the occupied West Bank after Hamas routed Palestinian Authority forces from the enclave in 2007 following a brief civil war. A Hamas court in Gaza later sentenced him in absentia, accusing him of instigating chaos. Nasman denies this.
– Hamas recently agreed to discuss disarmament with other Palestinian factions and with mediators, However, Neither Washington nor the mediators had presented the group with any detailed or concrete disarmament proposal.
– The U.S. had approached Hamas to explore potential disarmament mechanisms involving parties including Israel, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey.
– Hamas strongly believes that a serious political negotiation process must begin on Palestinian statehood, whereby weapons and fighters would come under the authority of the State of Palestine.
– Hamas is not the only militant group in the enclave to possess arms. Other groups were discussing disarmament but worried about being left defenseless.
– In remarks to parliament on Monday, Netanyahu said that the next phase of the Gaza deal “is not reconstruction.”
– He said, “the next phase is demilitarization of the Strip and disarming Hamas.”