RAMALLAH: Palestinian group Hamas on Sunday blamed rivals within the Palestinian Authority of sending security personnel into northern Gaza under cover of securing aid trucks.
A Palestinian Authority official has dismissed the Hamas allegations.
Hamas interior ministry senior official in a statement said that the Palestinian Authority’s chief of intelligence Majed Faraj, overseen the mission.
It alleged that six members of the force, who escorted assistance trucks coming through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, were taken into custody.
The Hamas official without giving evidence said the suspicious security force members entered into Gaza with Egypt’s Red Crescent trucks, coordinated its operations completely with Israeli forces. The Red Crescent is the equivalent of the Red Cross.
A Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah, in a statement said the allegations by Hamas interior ministry over the aid entry into Gaza are incorrect.
The official, added the authority was not interested in such comments that would divert attention from the suffering of the people of Gaza.
According to the statement posted by Hamas’ its fighters were instructed to treat any forces that entered Gaza without coordination with them as an occupation force.
Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, a year after sweeping elections, after a short civil war with security forces of the Palestinian Authority (PA), reducing the PA’s rule to the -occupied West Bank.
