Palestinian interior minister Said Siyam announced that a new security force, whose creation has been vetoed by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, has begun operating in the Gaza Strip. "Today we announce the beginning of the security force that was established to protect Palestinian security," Siyam told a news conference in Gaza City.
Siyam said the force would comprise of 3,000 members of all the Palestinian factions and would answer directly to his ministry. "The current weakness of the security forces is clear to everyone. There is stealing, kidnapping and killing so there is a real need for this force."
Siyam insisted that there was no disagreement over the force. "This force has been formed in agreement with the office of the president," he said.
Meanwhile, gunmen shot dead a Hamas activist in a drive-by shooting Wednesday in a Gaza Strip refugee camp, medics and Hamas sources said, in the second such killing since Tuesday. Medics said that gunmen shot the Hamas man as they passed him in a car in Jabalya refugee camp, and that he died later in hospital.
