RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ordered an overhaul of his security apparatus yesterday after an inquiry panel held 60 officers responsible for its collapse in factional fighting that gave Hamas control of the Gaza Strip.
The reform aims to make the security forces more professional and strengthen them against any similar challenge by Hamas in the more populous West Bank. U.S. officials have pressed for such changes to advance the prospects for peace talks that Abbas and his secular Fatah movement are seeking with Israel.
Hamas, an Islamic movement that calls for Israel's destruction, has considerable popular support in the Fatah-dominated West Bank. The rival armed movements have clashed twice on university campuses there this month.
Nabil Amr, an adviser to Abbas who sat on the nine-member inquiry panel, said those blamed for Fatah's defeat in Gaza would be disciplined or court-martialed. He said they included officers up to the rank of brigadier.
About 40 Fatah officers have already resigned, taken early retirement or been fired, Palestinian officials said.
The panel was made up of security force officers, lawyers and politicians. It was led by Tayeb Abdul Rahim, Abbas' civilian chief of staff.
After taking hundreds of hours of testimony from field commanders and soldiers, it concluded that Fatah's forces in Gaza had been weakened by nepotism, infiltration by hostile elements, and a practice of taking volunteers motivated by economic need or factional loyalty rather than those who are best qualified.
"Rest assured that we will take this report as it is and implement it in its entirety," Abbas said upon receiving the 200-page volume. "Whoever had shortcomings will get his punishment and whoever did his duty will be rewarded, so that we can turn a new page in our institutions."
Amr said the "first step toward real reform" would be more stringent professional criteria for hiring members of the various police and intelligence services that make up the security forces.
"We don't want security forces built on a factional basis," he told reporters.
Since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza in the mid-1990s, its leaders have often pledged to reform the bloated security services but have not followed through. Abbas' security services have about 80,000 members and are built from a core of loyalists in the late Yasser Arafat's Fatah guerrilla forces.
As many as 40,000 Fatah-led fighters were serving in Gaza when Hamas defeated Fatah in parliamentary elections in January last year, formed a government and began building up a rival security force in the coastal territory.
Though numerically superior there, Fatah-led forces struggled during a year of sporadic clashes in Gaza and crumbled in the face of Hamas' five-day final offensive last month. Fatah abandoned key positions, including Abbas' Gaza compound, without a fight.
The inquiry panel's report was not made public, but Amr said it criticized a lack of coordination among security branches during the June fighting, which left about 150 people dead.
"There was no field leadership," he said. "There were only individual initiatives."
After reading the panel's findings earlier this week, Abbas decided to fire Mohammed Dahlan as his national security adviser, Palestinian officials said. Instead, Dahlan resigned Thursday, citing health reasons.
Dahlan had been in Egypt during last month's fighting, reportedly for knee surgery, and was widely blamed for a lack of Fatah field leadership in Gaza. Officials said he would not face disciplinary action.
A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said that Abbas, as commander in chief, should accept responsibility.
There was no indication that the report cast any blame on the president. Instead, Amr said, it found that security officials had failed to obey Abbas' instructions to forestall a possible "coup" by Hamas, and that some had given him misleading information about Hamas' strength and intentions.
Fatah's defeat left a diplomatically isolated Gaza under Hamas control and the West Bank run by a new government appointed by Abbas. Hamas leaders have asked Abbas to reconcile with them, but he has refused unless they give up military control of Gaza and agree to new elections.
The United States, other Western countries and Israel have promised aid to the West Bank but demanded that Abbas reform his Fatah movement and assert control of the security apparatus so it can stop irregular militias from attacking Israel.
Maher Abukhater and Richard Boudreaux write for the Los Angeles Times.