Police at center of Palestinian tensions

JERICHO, West Bank -- Ever since Hamas defeated the ruling Fatah party in January's elections, Palestinian security officials have dreaded a shoot-out with Israeli forces like the one that killed a Palestinian policeman and a prisoner here Tuesday. But they're even more worried about another nightmare scenario -- a brewing confrontation between Hamas militants and Fatah-dominated police and soldiers that could spark street battles or paralyze the Palestinian security forces.

In the increasingly tense standoff between Hamas and Fatah over the future of the Palestinian Authority, the most explosive issue is the fate of the more than 60,000 members of the security forces, most of them Fatah members who fear losing their jobs in a struggling economy where there are few alternatives, and have already been castigated by Hamas leaders as corrupt, weak, and too close to Israel.

Tuesday's raid on a Palestinian jail -- where Israelis seized six prisoners, including five from a group that claimed responsibility for killing an Israeli minister -- weakened the position of the Fatah-led forces against Hamas, Palestinian officials say.

''The security forces are the most hurt by this raid," a high-ranking security officer in Jericho said after the raid, which produced humiliating television images of Palestinian police surrendering in their underwear. ''They have lost their dignity in the eyes of Palestinian citizens and in the eyes of the Palestinian factions."

''Hamas will try to profit from this," added the officer, who asked not to be named because he was commenting on political issues. ''Israel has deepened our people's mistrust in us."

The raid bore out a fear that several Palestinian security officers have expressed in recent interviews -- that under Hamas, Israel would view Palestinan forces as military foes, as in 2002 when Israeli forces crushed the Palestinian police for failing to prevent militant attacks.

And the violent reactions in the Gaza Strip, where a dozen foreigners were briefly kidnapped and a British office torched, reinforced perceptions of the security forces' lack of control.

On top of those problems is the looming quesiton of whether Fatah loyalists will ever obey orders from their longtime ideological and military rivals in Hamas.

International threats to cut off the aid that provides half the authority's budget unless Hamas renounces violence and recognizes Israel have sparked fears that unpaid security forces, including members of Fatah's Al Aqsa wing, will cause even more chaos in the streets.

But even if Hamas manages to pay their salaries, it may face defiance from Palestinian police, intelligence, national security, and other armed forces.

Aouni Samarra, the burly police chief of Hebron, has devoted his life to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, first as a militant and then as the face of the law in the West Bank's second-largest city. He delivered a stern message to his new Hamas bosses when they marched into his office here shortly after trouncing Fatah at the polls in January. ''If you fire a lot of people, it means civil war," Samarra recalled telling the half-dozen Islamist legislators who visited him after the vote that put them in control of the Palestinian parliament.

Hamas now has the power to appoint the interior minister, who at least in name controls most of the security forces. To break Arafat's monopoly on power in the last years of his life, the United States had backed the transfer of security powers to the Interior Ministry. As a result, the forces now must answer to Hamas rather than the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, a Fatah loyalist who succeeded Arafat after his death in 2004.

Hamas leaders say they know they must tread carefully, but are determined to finish the reforms that Abbas promised but failed to carry out: making the security forces answer to the government rather than individual leaders, rooting out corruption, and getting rid of thousands who are paid without showing up to work.

''The major problem is that the head is Hamas and the body is Fatah," Nayef Rajoub, a Hamas leader in Hebron who was one of the targets of Samarra's lecture, said in a recent interview. ''We are going to face an army of Fatah in the security forces and ministries."

''I believe the majority of the security people will cooperate with us because they need to keep their jobs," said Rajoub, who defeated his brother, Jibril Rajoub, a Fatah member and former head of security for the Palestinian Authority, in a head-to-head race in Hebron. ''However, I think that many ideological people in Fatah, whether they are leaders or officers or even soldiers, will oppose us. They will not work under our instructions."

Rajoub called the struggle over the security forces ''the most dangerous issue after the [Israeli] occupation" and said some forces are in ''a state of rebellion," citing periodic attacks on government buildings by Fatah militants, including an attempt last week by Fatah gunmen to break into the Palestininian Legislative council.

So far, those incidents remain scattered, and a wary calm prevails. But worries simmer below the surface. Many experienced security officers say they will quit if asked to work under a Hamas minister, or if asked to carry out orders they disagree with. One unit commander, Colonel Hatem Hassan, was typical in vouching for the discipline of his men but worrying that other units could make trouble.

''Don't rule out the possibility" of armed clashes, he said. ''I can't answer for the other forces." Then he added, ''I myself have applied for early retirement."

The future of US cooperation with Palestinian security forces is also up in the air. An advisory team led by security coordinator Lieutenant General Keith Dayton remains in place, but they could be left without a role if they cannot communicate with Palestinian security forces under a US ban on contacts with Hamas, which the State Department lists as a terrorist organization.

No segment of Palestinian society was more shocked than the security forces when Hamas, a militant group that remains officially committed to the destruction of Israel, ended Fatah's decades of dominance in Palestinian politics.

''We have to redefine the job of the security men. Their job is to serve their own people and protect them and not to save the security of Israel. We strongly reject that. We also reject the security coordination with Israel," Rajoub said.

To Samarra, that is anathema. An imposing figure with a handlebar mustache and a navy-blue sweater with epaulettes, he said he had stood with Arafat on the podium in Algeria in 1988 when Fatah and the rest of the Palestine Liberation Organization declared it would pursue a two-state solution.

He said a new Hamas government must abide by all international agreements signed under Arafat. ''I'm not ready to work against my conscience," he said. ''If they insist, I will go home."

His most visceral objection was to allowing Hamas cadres into the security forces. ''Impossible!" he said. ''Can a sheik with a beard come and take my place?"

He ticked off his military training in Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, and other countries. ''Fatah is the owner of the Palestinian national struggle, for 40 years," he said, calling Hamas parliament speaker Aziz Dweik, who was speaking on television above his desk, a political newborn.

Rajoub, meanwhile, says there are 37,000 security salaries being paid to people who don't show up for work and vows to start firing those people. He said Hamas would leave top leaders in place to avoid friction, at least at first.

Samarra scoffed and said there was ''no corruption" in his force, which is responsible for a third of the West Bank. ''If Nayef Rajoub brings me proof, I will fire anyone," he said. ''I will fire myself."