PA officers during latest operation
צילום: איי אף פי
Palestinians wage war on crime
Palestinian Authority launches large-scale operation to battle crime, gain control over anarchy. While security forces arrest drug dealers, confiscate weapons, police car gets pinched in Gaza
The Palestinian Authority has launched an extensive operation to enforce law and order in the streets of the Palestinian cities and exercise control over the raging anarchy in its territory.
Ironically however, while Palestinian officers were conducting searches after criminals and stolen property in Jenin and Gaza Sunday, a police car was snatched right under the nose of the police in the Strip.
The security forces focused their attention in Ramallah and Nablus on locating stolen property, primarily vehicles and arms. Efforts to apprehend drug dealers were carried out in these West Bank towns as well.
Activity in West Bank focused on locating stolen cars, arms (Photo: AP)
Exchanges of gunfire between security officers and local gunmen were reported while police operated at the Balata refugee camp near Nablus.
In Jenin, several stolen vehicles were bulldozed, while police officers patrolled the city market and removed non-licensed merchants from the place.
Meanwhile, Palestinian security men in the central area of the Strip concentrated on manning the roadblocks once occupied by the IDF, and confiscated 26 vehicles across the region, on suspicion they were stolen.
A large-scale operation to trace weapons and drug dealers has also been launched, during which several dealers were arrested.
The operation in central Gaza is scheduled to continue until the middle of the week, when it will move to southern Gaza. The PA officers are expected to encounter some difficulties in the southern region, where a few mostly-independent gunmen cells operate.
'No one is above the law'
A security officer said that the men were ordered to act against any suspect, "whatever his position and standing is. No one is above the law."
In the meantime, the operation was crowned a success by the Palestinian Authority, and sources said that the Palestinian citizens were beginning to feel the presence of official security forces in the streets.
The security forces are regaining control over the streets, control they had nearly lost completely in the last few years, a source at the PA explained.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas vowed on Friday that the PA will do whatever is in its power to reinforce law, order and security in its territory.
Speaking at the ceremony to mark the opening of the Rafah border crossing, Abbas said the key for survival and prosperity is security for the local population, and stressed that it would be impossible to develop the local economy and bring international investments to the region in the absence of such security.
Notably, many of the Palestinian officers who took part in this operation were trained by European and Egyptian security personnel.
