A/HRC/12/48 page 104 Gaza police, but showed pride in their success in reducing lawlessness in the Gaza Strip.266 This assessment was shared by many whom the Mission interviewed in the course of its investigations. The police orders and the Ministry’s website similarly describe the police as a law-enforcement agency. As to allegations that the police and al-Qassam Brigades were “interchangeable”, the Director of Police asserted that they were “absolutely not true”. 411. According to the police spokesperson, during the military operations the mandate of the police was firstly to “protect the internal front”, i.e. ensure that the relationship between the civilian population and the authorities stayed “intact”. Secondly, the police were to monitor the distribution of humanitarian goods to the civilian population. Thirdly, they were to continue regular law-enforcement duties, with a particular focus on combating looting and speculation on prices.267 3. The Mission’s assessment of the role and composition of the police 412. In order to shed some light on where the truth might lie between these two conflicting descriptions of the police, the Mission finds it necessary to examine the development of the security forces linked to Hamas after its election victory in January 2006. When Mr. Said Seyam, a senior Hamas representative,268 took office as the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Interior in April 2006, he found that he had little or no control over the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, which were put under the control of the President of the Palestinian Authority and of officials loyal to him.269 On 20 April 2006, he announced the formation of a new security force reporting directly to him. This was the Security Forces Support Unit, also known as the Executive Force (al-Quwwa al-Tanfiziyya). The new security force appears to have had a double function as both a law-enforcement agency and, at least potentially, a military force. It was officially charged with enforcing public security and protecting property. At the same time, he appointed Mr. Jamal Abu Samhadana, commander of the Popular Resistance Committees, as the head of the Executive Force270 and announced that it would be composed of 3,000 new recruits Mission meeting with the Gaza authorities’ Director of Police, 4 June 2009. On both successes in restoring order and violations of human rights by the Gaza police after June 2007, see also International Crisis Group, “Ruling Palestine I: Gaza under Hamas”, Middle East Report No. 73, 19 March 2008, p. 10. 266 Mission meeting with Gaza authorities’ police spokesperson, 9 June 2009. According to the International Crisis Group, during the hostilities, “the Qassam Brigades and some civil police members (still referred to locally as the “Executive Forces”) patrolled streets in civilian clothes; some wore badges to establish their official status. They continued to arrest lawbreakers, detaining them in ordinary apartments since prisons have been destroyed; this helps explain why thus far there has been no report of looting or increase in crime. Likewise, security personnel maintained order in breadlines that sometimes stretched to hundreds of people and prevented unrest at the overburdened hospitals, where tempers easily flare.” “Ending the war…”, p. 8). 267 Said Seyam was killed by an Israeli air strike on 15 January 2009 together with several members of his family (TAWTHEQ documents submitted to the Mission; see also International Crisis Group, “Gaza’s unfinished business”, Middle East Report N°85, 23 April 2009, p. 5.) 268 See, for instance, International Crisis Group, “Palestinians, Israel, and the Quartet: Pulling back from the brink”, Middle East Report N°54, 13 June 2006, p. 12. 269 Ibid., pp. 13 and 20; “Fatal casualties…”. Abu Samhadana and three other members of the Popular Resistance Committees were killed by an Israeli air strike on 8 or 9 June 2006. 270