RAMALLAH, West Bank: The chief of Palestinian national security forces in West Bank, Gen. Dhiab Al-Ali, said yesterday that the Palestinian Authority must be ready to use force against Hamas in Gaza “to reunify the homeland.”
Al-Ali (nicknamed Abu Al-Fatah), told an Israeli daily in an interview that “if Gaza remains mutinous, the Palestinian Authority (PA) will have no choice but to use force against it.”
Al-Ali said the PA has not ruled out using force if the territory remains in Hamas’ hands, which violently seized control of the area last year. Gaza Strip became politically separated from the West Bank after Hamas rejected decisions by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who withdrew his movement from a Hamas-led coalition, fired the Hamas government and formed a Western-backed government in the West Bank.
“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 Abbas has ever expressed such views to the media, and especially not ahead of talks in Cairo on a possible detente with Hamas. A Hamas delegation is also scheduled to talk to Egyptian officials early next month, and Egypt is likely to hold a reconciliation summit in Cairo after the Eid Al-Fitr holiday.
Al-Ali dismissed Hamas’ threats against the PA in the West Bank. “Hamas doesn’t have the power to pose a real challenge to the PA in the West Bank,” he said. “Israel’s declarations about Hamas’ capabilities are a wild exaggeration. If the Israelis were to withdraw from PA territories today we would assume responsibility everywhere. There will be problems, but where aren’t there in this region? If the Israeli Army withdraws from the West Bank we’d have to increase the Palestinian forces to about 15,000 soldiers.”
