Gaza City: A top security official in Hamas-ruled Gaza is considering setting up a bigger military force, to be made up originally of volunteers and later conscripts.
Such a step would further tighten control of Gaza by Hamas and deepen the rift between the militant group and Western-backed moderates of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Hamas now has a paid security force of 18,000.
Interior Minister Fat’hi Hamad raised the idea Tuesday at the inauguration of a new police building. He said his ministry is "open to the idea of voluntary recruitment and then going to conscription." He gave no details however.
His spokesman Ehab Ghussein says the ministry is now considering voluntary recruitment for a broad-based security force, but for the moment, not in the form of conscription.
