Palestinian forces deploy to West Bank town
JENIN, West Bank (AFP) — Hundreds of Palestinian security forces deployed in the West Bank town of Jenin on Saturday in the latest extension of a territory-wide crackdown, a senior security official said.
General Thiyab al-Ali, commander of Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, told AFP that 600 police reinforcements loyal to president Mahmud Abbas were sent to Jenin to bolster some 500 police already stationed there.
"The security forces will carry out a campaign of imposing law and order in the Jenin governorate," he said, in an operation called "Smiles and Hope" that will seek to disarm local gangs and militias.
"These forces will implement the orders of president Mahmud Abbas to serve the citizens, protect them, and end the security breakdown in the governorate," he added.
Israel at the end of March approved the deployment of some 700 security forces to the town, the site of fierce clashes during the Palestinian uprising which broke out in 2000.
The security forces, loyal to Abbas's Palestinian Authority, will press a months-old security crackdown in the northern West Bank that was launched in November in a bid to underpin peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
The security crackdown has been largely aimed at arresting and disarming members of the Islamist Hamas movement, which swept into power in the Gaza Strip in June after a week of clashes with forces loyal to Abbas.
In recent months Abbas's forces have arrested scores of Hamas members across the West Bank as the Islamists have accused his Palestinian Authority of doing the bidding of Israel, which has also arrested dozens of members.
Hamas on Saturday said the new deployment "should be done within the framework of enforcing the law and preserving the security of Palestinians" and should not target the fighters of the various Palestinian political factions.
"We warn against touching the Palestinian resistance and its legitimate weapons," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in a statement from Gaza.
Under the 2003 roadmap agreement, an internationally-adopted framework for peace, the Palestinians must improve security in the occupied territories while Israel halts Jewish settlement activity and dismantles some illegal outposts.
The latest deployment came hours before US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's latest visit to the region, in which she is expected to encourage the talks ahead of a visit by US President George W. Bush later this month.
