RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM - A senior Palestinian official said on Thursday that any international force planned for deployment in the Gaza Strip should not serve as a substitute for the Palestinian security forces.
Azzam al-Ahmed, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation Executive Committee, told Xinhua that "the Palestinian position is clear. Any international force should be established under a UN Security Council resolution and in coordination with the Palestinian Authority, rather than replacing or taking over the role of Palestinian security forces."
He said that the recent understandings reached with Hamas stipulated that the administrative committee responsible for managing Gaza "will be affiliated with the Palestinian government and headed by one of its ministers".
Al-Ahmad added that there is "a clear Arab consensus" on the necessity of maintaining Palestinian security forces in Gaza.
He also said that the training of Palestinian security personnel is continuing in both Jordan and Egypt "to prepare them to assume their responsibilities in the Strip", noting that "hundreds of personnel are currently undergoing specialized training programs."
Remains returned by Hamas a Tanzanian student
Meanwhile, Israel said that the remains handed over by Hamas the previous night were identified as those of a Tanzanian agricultural intern who was killed during the Hamas-led attack on Oct 7, 2023.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said forensic tests confirmed the identity of Joshua Loitu Mollel, adding that his family had been notified. "The Government of Israel shares in the deep sorrow of the Mollel family," the statement said.
Mollel, 21, had arrived in Israel about two weeks before the Oct 7 assault as an agronomy student for agricultural training at the Ibim Agricultural Campus in southern Israel. He was killed by Hamas militants at a cowshed in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where he worked, and his body was taken to the Gaza Strip, the military said.
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Tanzania's Foreign Ministry announced his death in December 2023. He is survived by his parents, three sisters, and a brother.
Hamas, which handed over his body on Wednesday night through the Red Cross, said the remains were found in Gaza City's Shuja'iyya neighborhood. The handover was part of an ongoing exchange under the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Two Palestinians killed in West Bank
In another development, two Palestinians, a teenager and an elderly woman, were killed in separate incidents involving the Israeli army in the West Bank, Palestinian sources said.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a brief statement that the General Authority for Civil Affairs had informed it of the killing of 15-year-old Murad Fawzi Abu Seifen by Israeli army gunfire in the town of Ya'bad, west of Jenin in the northern West Bank.
The ministry added that the Israeli army is still holding the boy's body.
Local sources told Xinhua that Israeli forces stormed Ya'bad and opened fire on Abu Seifen in one of the town's streets, hitting him with four bullets. The forces prevented Palestinian ambulance crews from reaching him, leaving him to bleed to death before seizing his body.
For its part, the Israeli army said in a press statement that a Palestinian had thrown an explosive device at its forces while they were operating in Ya'bad, prompting the soldiers to open fire and kill him.
In a separate incident, Palestinian medical sources in Ramallah said that 80-year-old Haniya Hanoun was killed after being assaulted by Israeli forces inside her home in the town of Al-Mazra'a Al-Gharbiya, near Ramallah in the central West Bank.
The sources said Hanoun died from severe injuries sustained after soldiers beat her during a raid on her house.
Israeli forces also detained her grandson before withdrawing from the area, according to the sources.
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There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the incident.
