Cabinet tells IDF: Keep pressure on Hamas and ready for Gaza operation

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It decided to work to strengthen "elements in the Palestinian Authority other than the Hamas government," thereby effectively giving its approval to a plan by General Keith Dayton, the American security coordinator in the territories, to arm and train forces loyal to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Dayton wants to prepare Abbas' forces in Gaza for a confrontation with Hamas, which the United States believes is inevitable.

It also decided to give positive consideration to the PA's request to transfer thousands of rifles from Egypt and Jordan to Abbas' forces, as well as to America's request that Israel allow the Badr Brigade - a wing of the Palestine Liberation Army that is currently stationed in Jordan - to relocate to the territories. Israel has previously refused to admit the Badr Brigade, but Dayton wants to turn it into Abbas' rapid reaction force in Gaza.

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Additionally, the cabinet agreed to "launder" the presence in the West Bank of some 5,000 Palestinians who hold American or European passports but returned to the West Bank after the Oslo Accords were signed. Because they had lost their residency permits due to long absence, they entered on tourist visas, but for years, these visas were automatically renewed. Recently, however, the Interior Ministry has refused to renew them, resulting in many being "trapped" in Jordan, cut off from their jobs and families.

This development has elicited sharp protests from the U.S. and the European Union, and the coordinator of government activities in the territories, Major General Yosef Mishlav, therefore recommended giving them residency permits on a humanitarian basis. Peretz approved this idea and forwarded it to the diplomatic-security cabinet, which ratified it yesterday.

Haaretz