Palestinian Preventive Security, a key force in a struggle to stop militant violence, has a new leader, Rashid Abu Shbak, whose appointment reflects an effort by President Mahmoud Abbas to replace the cronies of his legendary predecessor, Yasser Arafat.
Abbas appointed Abu Shbak, 50, on Tuesday as commander of the elite force, another step toward streamlining and revamping the security branches. Before, Abu Shbak headed the Gaza section, separate from the West Bank force.
On Saturday, the Palestinian leader completed a key element of reform by consolidating the nine branches of his security service into three. He also signed off on the forced retirement of two leading security figures, who are to be among 1,150 eased out under a retirement plan announced earlier this month.
Trying to ease the blow to their prestige, Abbas on Tuesday offered 10 of the senior officers an award called the "Al Quds Medal," but several of them refused to accept it as a gesture of complaint against their dismissal.
The Israeli military is warning that Palestinian militants in the West Bank are planning a new round of violence in September or October, after Israel completes its withdrawal from Gaza, according to security officials.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the material, said there has been a sudden significant increase in arms smuggling from Egypt, and the arms are ending up in the West Bank.
On Tuesday the military said it is stepping up patrols along the 200km desert border. The officials said weapons seized in recent days include dozens of rifles and a shipment of high quality rocket-propelled grenades.
The officials said another round of violence is inevitable unless Abbas and his security forces take measures to stop the militants.
Arafat set up at least nine competing and overlapping security services and kept them all under his command, as a way of maintaining his one-man rule, playing competing strongmen off against each other.
Israel charged that many of the services were directly involved in Palestinian violence that erupted in 2000. Also, the Israelis banned all Palestinians from carrying weapons -- including police.
The combination of the internal conflicts and Israeli attacks reduced the Palestinian Authority's forces to near total ineffectiveness -- though Israel and the US continued to demand a crackdown on militant groups. In the absence of a central authority, armed gangs of militants took control of Palestinian streets and refugee camps.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but