Arab Support
Egypt and Jordan train thousands of police to hold Gaza's streets
Graphic: Times of Palestine
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Cairo and Amman are graduating classes of Palestinian police prepared to take over security in the Gaza Strip — among the plainest forms of practical Arab support in this phase, because it produces graduates rather than communiqués.
Egypt's foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, said the lists of Palestinian police training in Egypt and Jordan for deployment in Gaza were complete, and put the Egyptian intake at about five thousand officers.
What has been delivered#
Cairo graduated a first group of more than five hundred officers in March, and two-month courses have run since, the news site Times of Israel reported.
The same report cited an Egyptian account that nine thousand officers are being prepared for the new force: three thousand already trained in Egypt, three thousand training in Jordan, and three thousand to be trained by the European Union.
The Palestinian Authority nominated some 5,500 candidates for the Egyptian courses, against a stated target of at least ten thousand.
What has been funded#
The United Arab Emirates transferred one hundred million dollars to the Board of Peace for building the police force — the largest single contribution the board had received as of May, when the transfer was reported. An Emirati security firm was given the work of standing up a force of roughly 27,000.
The European Union plans to train up to three thousand officers on the model of its existing police mission in the occupied West Bank, funded from its common foreign and security policy budget, with its special representative for the peace process, Christophe Bigot, due in Cairo to discuss the role.
What is still unsettled#
No deployment date has been set. Vetting of candidates is run by Israel and the United States to screen out anyone tied to Hamas, and that screen governs entry to the force.
Ali Shaath, the Palestinian technocrat leading the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, said large parts of the Strip are severely damaged and that "law and order remain fragile. This is not a normal operating environment."
The question that matters first to people in Gaza is who commands this force once it reaches the street. The salaries come from the Gulf, the vetting from Israel and Washington, the training from Cairo, Amman and Brussels — and the daily command has not yet been settled on any one named Palestinian authority.
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