Israel to allow 700 additional armed PA troops into Hebron
By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel Haaretz Last update - 06:34 13/10/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1028415.html

The Palestinian Authority is expected to deploy a battalion of security
forces to the West Bank city of Hebron Friday, Palestinian sources said
Sunday. The move will be coordinated with Israel, and the 700 troops will
handle security operations among the city's Palestinian population.

Israeli security forces confirmed an agreement is in the works, but said the
Palestinian timetable is somewhat optimistic. If the Palestinian sources are
correct, the troops will move into their new quarters Friday, which falls
during the intermediate days of the Sukkot holiday - when thousands of
Israeli Jews are expected to visit the Israeli-controlled territory in
Hebron, especially the Cave of the Patriarchs.

The armed battalion is the second unit of the Palestinian National Security
Forces to undergo American training in Jordan, under the supervision of the
U.S. security coordinator in the region, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton. It has 650
to 700 soldiers and officers, and 150 vehicles.

Samih al-Sifi, the commander of the security forces, said the deployment
does not mean the Palestinian Authority is taking security responsibility
for the Palestinian part of Hebron. He said Israel authorized the PA to
restore order and security in the city but that there would be no wide-scale
operations, only focused ones. He said the operations would begin only after
Sukkot, on October 22.

Some 600 to 700 Palestinian police generally patrol Hebron, and doubling
that number - especially since the new troops are well-trained - can be
expected to improve the PA's hold on the city.

Four months ago, at American urging, Israel and the PA began to return full
security control of the West Bank city of Jenin to the PA. For the past two
months, the Palestinians have been asking to expand the Jenin model to
Hebron. Israel and the United States held back, primarily because they fear
clashes between PA forces and Israeli settlers. It appears that Israel has
now decided to accede to the Palestinians' request, albeit to a limited
extent and without actually transferring security responsibility to the PA.

Israeli security officials said the PA is interested in bolstering its
police presence in Hebron partly because of the influence of wealthy
Palestinian residents, who constitute a mainstay of support for Palestinian
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and partly because the PA sees Hebron as an
area where Hamas is relatively strong, and it wants to erode the rival
movement's power in the city.