A/HRC/12/48 page 60 officials who had left their jobs under instruction of the Palestinian Authority, the Gaza authorities appointed judges and prosecutors generally lacking experience and independence.70 213. Before June 2007, there were about 12,600 Palestinian police officers in Gaza and 6,500 in the West Bank under a unified command. Palestinian civil police were operating from 10 district headquarters (including the one in Ramallah, which is also its main central command). After Hamas seized full control of the Gaza Strip, official data about police numbers are available only for the West Bank, where there are 78 police facilities, including district headquarters, general stations and posts, public order compounds, prisons and detention centres, training centres and stations for border police, tourist police, criminal investigation police and traffic police.71 214. In 2005 various security forces were consolidated into three branches: National Security, Internal Security and General Intelligence, each comprising several forces. General Intelligence includes Military Intelligence and the Military Police, and is under the direct control of the Palestinian Authority’s President, as is the Presidential Guard/Force 17. National Security and Internal Security are under the jurisdiction of the Ministers of National Security and the Interior, respectively, but their heads are appointed by the Palestinian Authority’s President. In 2006, the then Hamas Interior Minister established the Executive Force, mainly composed of members of al-Qassam Brigades and Hamas supporters.72 Since Hamas seized control in June 2007, law and order and other security functions have been performed by Hamas security organizations.73 The Gaza authorities announced a series of new bodies or mechanisms to replace the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and judicial institutions that have refused to operate under or alongside the Hamas administration.74 In September 2007, the Internal Security Force was established with most of its personnel coming from al-Qassam Brigades. In October 2007, Hamas dissolved the Executive Force and absorbed its personnel into the police. Both the Internal Security Force and the police report to the minister of interior.75 (See chapter X.) 215. Most Palestinian political parties have an armed wing or armed groups affiliated to them.76 The two largest armed groups are al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, and alQassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. Al-Aqsa Brigades were established by Fatah activists, including members of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, shortly after the Human Rights Watch, Internal Fight: Palestinian Abuses in Gaza and the West Bank (July 2008), available at: http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/07/29/internal-fight-0. 70 The European Union’s police mission for the Palestinian Territories (2008), available at: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/EUPOL%20COPPS%20booklet.pdf. 71 72 See chap. VII. Central Intelligence Agency, The World Fact Book 2009 (Gaza Strip), available at: https://www.cia.gov/library/ publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gz.html. 73 74 “Occupied Palestinian Territories torn apart…”. 75 Internal Fight... The armed wings of the Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. There are also other smaller splinter groups. 76