Egypt trains hundreds of Palestinians for future Gaza police force

Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinian police officers with an eye towards integrating them into a post-war security force in Gaza, a Palestinian official told AFP.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced the plan to train 5,000 officers for Gaza during talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in August.

A first group of more than 500 officers were trained in Cairo in March and since September the two-month courses have resumed to welcome hundreds more people, the Palestinian official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He said all members of the force will be from Gaza and paid by the Palestinian Authority, which is based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

'Permanent end to war and aggression'

"I'm very happy with the training. We want a permanent end to war and aggression, and we're eager to serve our country and fellow citizens," a 26-year-old Palestinian police officer said.

He told AFP he hoped the security force would be "independent, loyal only to Palestine and not subject to external alliances or objectives."

"We received outstanding operational training, with modern equipment for border surveillance," said a Palestinian lieutenant who also requested anonymity for security reasons, as did everyone interviewed by AFP.

Since October 2023, Israel's retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,100 people, according to figures from the territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

'Protecting the dream'

The training also highlighted the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and stressed the importance of "protecting the dream of creating" a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state.

A senior security official from the Palestinian Authority confirmed that its president Mahmoud Abbas had instructed Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Reeh to coordinate with Egypt on the training.

During talks sponsored by Egypt late last year, Palestine agreed to a force of around 10,000 police officers.

Egypt would train half of them while the other 5,000 would come from the police force in Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since the resistance group seized power there in 2007.

Committee of technocrats

Under the agreement, the security force would be supervised by a committee of technocrats approved by the Palestinian leadership.

A senior Hamas official confirmed to AFP that the group supported "the details regarding security and management of Gaza" agreed during the talks.