Traffic Cops or Trained Terrorists?

By Published On: September 14, 2009

hamas police.jpg
Announcement of the death of Ayman Abu Sibleh, a policeman who also belonged
to the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (From the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades website, courtesy of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)

In its new study about the Palestinian casualties from Cast Lead, B’Tselem does not count the 248 Palestinian police officers killed as among those (just 330) killed while taking part in the hostilities.

But a new report by JCPA’s Jonathan D. Halevi finds that a:

decisive majority of the Palestinian “policemen” were members of the military wings of the Palestinian terror organizations and fighters who had undergone military training.

Among the 343 members of the Palestinian security forces who were killed, 286 have been identified as terror organization members (83 percent). Another 27 fighters belonging to units undergoing infantry training raises this total to 313 (91 percent).

Lumped under the rubric of the “Palestinian police” are all the security bodies that fulfilled combat and terror roles against Israel, the intelligence and preventive intelligence bodies, as well as those active in policing and maintaining order. Those serving in all of the Palestinian security apparatuses in 2007 and 2008 took part in terror activity and fighting against the IDF.

In the December 27, 2008, attack on an officer training course at Gaza police headquarters, 89 dead were counted. Of these, 60 (67 percent) belonged to Hamas and almost all were members of its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades. The total number of terror activists and fighters among those killed at police headquarters was 81 (91 percent).

Additional evidence that these “policemen” were not your run-of-the-mill traffic cops comes by way of the MEMRI blog, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, and the Institute for Counter-Terrorism.

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