GAZA CITY - The Islamist Hamas movement on Monday rejected the idea of forming a joint Palestinian security force in the Gaza Strip that would not also operate in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Salah al-Bardawil, spokesman for Hamas's parliamentary bloc, said any agreement on the formation of a new security force as part of Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks would have to apply to all the occupied territories.
"The correct way to address the security issue is to rehabilitate the security apparatus in the West Bank and Gaza on a basis of professionalism and patriotism," he said in a statement posted on a Hamas-affiliated website.
"Any deal that limits an agreement on security forces to the Gaza Strip clearly means giving a certificate of good conduct to the security services in the West Bank and their role in fighting the resistance," he said.
Hamas and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's secular Fatah party have been struggling for months to repair the internal Palestinian divisions left in the wake of the Islamist movement's bloody takeover of Gaza in June 2007.
On Sunday Fatah announced that the two sides had agreed to form a joint security force in the Gaza Strip and hoped to announce a definitive reconciliation deal in July.
But Egyptian efforts to reconcile them have repeatedly foundered amid disagreements on the composition and obligations of a proposed unity government, which would plan and hold new elections early next year.
Hamas emerged victorious from parliamentary elections in 2006 but Israel and the international community have refused to have any dealings with a government including the group, which is pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state.