Palestinian police battle the odds

Gaza City: The Palestinian security compounds were among the first targets during the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Some 60 F16 jet fighters hit 100 security buildings in three minutes, causing chaos in all public and private facilities.

Sixty-five police stations and 35 other security compounds including the civil defence and internal security buildings were totally destroyed during the war.

Afterwards, policemen and firemen found themselves without posts and headquarters, so were obliged to operate from the streets and on some occasions from their own homes.

According to a Hamas government survey, they need around $400 million (Dh1.4 billion) to repair and rebuild these posts, but due to the Israeli imposed siege on Gaza Strip, no construction materials, equipment or tools will enter Gaza, they say.

"There are around 105 security posts in Gaza Strip, the oldest and the biggest security compound was called Al Saraya security service compound in the middle of Gaza City &It is now a pile of rubble," said Islam Shahwan, the spokesman of Hamas police in Gaza.

According to Hamas government, about 500 members of the security services were killed during the war, including the director general of the police General Tawfiq Jaber.

"The Palestinian police service members were doing a good job before the Israeli war on Gaza, but nowadays they are retreating, but we believe that we are still able to control our work and to make our performance quite good despite many difficulties such as losing most of our posts and vehicles, but step by step we will rebuild our service again," Shahwan said.

Despite the hard conditions during the war, "the Palestinian police didn't stop securing the Gazans, however this wasn't easy and took doubled efforts from police members and leaders," Shahwan added.

"Even after the war is over we have an emergency plan& as a precaution to [protect] ourselves and our people from any further attacks&," he said.

He said the plan was based on recommendations from experts in the Ministry of the Interior.

The total number of the Palestinian security forces in Gaza is 13,000. About 9,000 of them are accounted as police officers and there are around 4,000 who work in the other security services.

It looks difficult for this small number to govern about 1.5 million people in Gaza Strip, however, Shahwan said they are up for the challenge.

"We don't deny that the numbers of our forces are not as it [is] supposed to be, but it is not a matter of numbers, it's a matter of what they believe. These security forces believe that they have made a difference and their duty is to protect and serve the people of Gaza."