RAMALLAH: The government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad yesterday welcomed the Egyptian proposal to deploy Arab forces in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Ashref Al-Ajrami, Palestinian minister of prisoners’ affairs, said “the Egyptian proposal is integral to (Palestinian) President Mahmoud Abbas’ call to end the state of split that emerged after Hamas’ coup.”
Ajrami added in a press statement “if Hamas was interested to reunite the internal Palestinian position and end the split it has to accept this idea.” He also said the deployment of Arab forces will help re-establishing the Palestinian security services on professional basis. In an interview with local October magazine on Saturday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit raised the idea of deployment of Arab troops in a bid to put an end to the situation in the Gaza Strip.
The magazine quoted Aboul Gheit as saying that “having Arab troops on the ground could help prevent fighting and confrontations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.”
There is a need to probe “such attractive idea” which has not been put up for discussion yet, but it should be taken seriously, he stressed. However, Hamas has rejected the idea which was proposed by Aboul Gheit. A Hamas leader said Sunday that his movement refuses the deployment of any foreign troops in Gaza and resolving the crisis can be done through diplomatic ways. Ajrami said that Hamas rejection to the idea “proves that it has no decision to give up the authority it gained by force in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, Nabil Shaath, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, said that his movement is fully committed to dialogue with Hamas as a way to settle Palestinian internal differences. Shaath said following a committee’s meeting that “Fatah cannot depend on fighting or violence to resolve any issue with the others.”
In another development, Israeli forces operating in the West Bank village of Nilin critically injured a Palestinian suffering from speech disability, Palestinian sources said yesterday. Israeli security sources said that that 40-year-old Awwad Srour is mentally ill.
The sources said Awwad, a father of three children, was wounded by four rubber-coated metal bullets fired at him from point blank range by Israeli soldiers who arrived at the village in order to arrest his brother, Aqel Srour, who has active in the struggle against the separation wall being erected in the area.
The Israeli sources reported that a force arrived at the village, to the west of Ramallah, in order to arrest a wanted man suspected of rioting and hurling a grenade at soldiers. The troops entered a four-story building. The brother was on the first floor, while his wanted brother was on the second floor.
According to the sources, the brother went wild and was put in one of the rooms. The force went up to the second floor and detained the wanted man for questioning.
