Gaza Interior Ministry claims PA security force entered strip in coordination with Israel

The Interior Ministry in Gaza said on Sunday that it arrested in Rafah several members of a security force sent into the strip by the Palestinian Authority.

According to an Interior Ministry official quoted by Al Jazeera on Sunday, the “suspicious” security force entered the Gaza Strip via Egyptian aid trucks in coordination with Israel. 

The official said police in Rafah are still working to apprehend the rest of the force.

The official, whose identity was not revealed by Al Jazeera, accused PA intelligence chief Majed Faraj of being involved in the creation of the force. “Faraj managed the security force, which numbered in the hundreds, in a deceptive manner and misled the factions and clans,” he said.

The Joint Room for Palestinian Resistance Factions — a joint military operations room including the military arms of Palestinian armed factions in Gaza — instructed the Interior Ministry to “deal with any security force that does not enter Gaza through coordination with the resistance the same way we treat the Occupation,” the ministry source told Al Jazeera.

Egypt informed the Palestinian General Authority for Crossings and Borders, the source added, that it was not aware of the identity of the force that received the Egyptian trucks.

The Palestinian Authority appeared to indirectly push back at the claim. An official source speaking to the authority-run Palestinian News and Information Agency (Wafa) denied the claim, saying, “the Hamas Interior Ministry’s statement about the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip is baseless.”

Meanwhile, a statement attributed to “the popular and tribal committees in the Gaza and northern governorates,” posted via Telegram by the Aqsa Channel, warned that the committees may be forced to take “harsh and difficult measures” until “international institutions put pressure on the Occupation to bring in aid without obstacles.” It suggested that the group would not let trucks in or out of the north until guarantees are set in place.

The incident is the latest to mark conflict around the aid delivery network within Gaza. Aid deliveries used to be secured by Hamas police, whose ranks have been significantly depleted by Israel’s targeted bombardment.

Scenes of chaos and disorder have emerged around Gaza’s aid distribution sites as the need for life-saving aid increases across the strip, where a majority of people are already displaced from their homes and at risk of malnutrition due to Israel’s siege and deprivation of resources. 

In the north, where scarcity is particularly severe, the Occupation military has previously killed hundreds of Palestinians awaiting aid deliveries in crowds of thousands.

The Occupation has also obstructed the delivery of humanitarian aid in a number of instances.

Institutions supervising aid distribution, such as the Palestine Red Crescent Society and UNRWA, were regularly prevented from entering the north, while the Occupation military directly targeted members of the popular and tribal committees that took over the distribution about two weeks ago. In a statement on Monday, the committees said that, during the past two weeks, the Occupation killed around 50 of its members near the Kuwait roundabout and in aid distribution centers across northern Gaza.

Israel had planned, reports said, to arm Gazan families and clans who were not affiliated with Hamas to have them assume the mission of securing and distributing aid.