By Saud Abu Ramadan

    GAZA, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The proposal to redeploy Arab security forces in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has been widely rejected by most of the Palestinian factions, which was even compared to a new occupation of Gaza similar to the one Israel ended in September 2005.

    Leaders of the Palestinian factions, mainly Hamas and Islamic Jihad (Holy War) strongly rejected the proposal which was welcomed by the leadership of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.

    The leaders of the factions said that the mission of the Arab security forces, if they are deployed in Gaza "will be protecting the Israeli occupation and ending the Palestinian armed resistance against Israel."

    Palestinian Authority leaders had earlier announced that they have officially discussed the idea with the Egyptian leaders and other Arab countries to deploy Arab security forces in the Gaza Strip, which has been ruled by Hamas movement since mid June last year.

    They said that the role of the Arab security forces is to rebuild the Palestinian security apparatuses and restore order and discipline in the Gaza Strip, which had witnessed violent fighting between rival Fatah and Hamas movement.

    Hamas movement rejected the idea, saying "it is an attempt to deal with the Palestinian cause as a security issue and not as occupied territories, where the rights of its people were violated."

    Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman in Gaza said "Hamas rejects bringing Arab or international forces to the Gaza Strip under any pretext," adding that "those who are seeking to bring these forces to Gaza are seeking to erase the Palestinian legitimacy and the Palestinian resistance."

    According to Barhoum, "if the Arab countries are really interested in helping the Palestinian people, they should help to end the Israeli occupation. No one can bring security forces to Gaza by force, and the Arab countries are asked to fight the occupation with us."

    The Islamic Jihad has also wondered "why such proposals and ideas come from the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah."

    Dawood Shihab, Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza said that "such ideas can never explain any good or positive will ... It is an attempt to monopolize the Palestinian decision."

    "We believe that bringing any security forces to the Gaza Strip, whether they are Arab or international, would deepen the crisis and won't resolve it, therefore such a proposal is totally rejected by the movement."

    The Islamic Jihad spokesman then called for "an active Arab role that sponsors a national dialogue and ends the current status of inter-Palestinian division, instead of pushing forward to bring Arab security forces."

    The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) expressed the same position against the proposal to bring Arab forces to Gaza, saying that once such a proposal is implemented, the consequences would be more risky.

    Jamil Majdalawi, a senior PFLP leader said that "having Arab security forces in Gaza would be part of a plan to protect the (Israeli) occupation, which still occupies the Gaza Strip and the West Bank."

    Nevertheless, Talal Oukal, a political analyst believes that the Palestinian area is in bad need of an Arab intervention to sponsor a serious dialogue among all conflicting factions and help the Palestinians end the status of inter-division between Gaza, ruled by Hamas and the West Bank, ruled by President Mahmoud Abbas.

    Oukal disagrees with the factions' leaders that bringing Arab forces to Gaza right now would amount to a re-occupation of the Gaza Strip, adding "no one has an interest to occupy Gaza, including Israel itself."

    "Having Arab security forces in Gaza and the West Bank together with the presence of the Palestinian Authority would hold all the Arabs responsible to confront the daily Israeli aggressions, mainly in the West Bank," said Oukal.