A new report says that Hamas rejected a joint Egyptian and Jordanian proposal to send Arab troops to Gaza to train Palestinian police forces.


Not surprisingly, Hamas immediately rejected the proposal, according to the Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh.

Why? It seems that such a plan would have involved some oversight into of weapons in Gaza, as well as efforts to prevent Hamas’ ongoing smuggling of arms, anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft weapons, missiles, and other contraband from Egypt into Gaza.

Here is a diagram showing how weapons smuggling operations operate from Rafah inside Egypt to Gaza. The diagram depicts how Israel had maintained a security corridor between Egypt and Gaza before ceding control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority several years ago.

Diagram: Israel News Agency

In an all too familiar Gaza episode, masked Hamas gunmen shot and paraded their way through the streets of Gaza to show inhabitants that they are truly street thugs.


The BBC interviewed one Fatah supporter in Gaza, Ahmed Abul Nasser, who described how Hamas sent “maybe 20 gunmen” to take him from his home while his family watched. He says he was released only after signing a boilerplate form promising to not associate himself with Fatah and “respect the Hamas government.”

Many other Fatah supporters that Hamas rounded up were beaten, Nasser said.