The Palestinian National Security Forces engage in various activities, including general law enforcement.
[1] As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict goes on, the security forces notably co-operate with other law enforcement agencies, such as arresting militant sub-groups and assisting the Israeli government with prosecuting those picked up.
[4] Initially, Yasser Arafat set up a string of 14 overlapping and often competing security forces, each one controlled by a rival political or former guerrilla chieftain, but all of them ultimately loyal to him and his Fatah party.
[5] After Hamas had established a PNA government in March 2006, it formed its own security service, the Executive Force, headed by Jamal Abu Samhadana, who was killed by Israel three months later.
[1] From the late 1990s, the CIA played the central role in building up PA security forces, in close co-operation with the Israeli military and intelligence.
According to The Guardian, based on the Palestine Papers, in 2003, British Prime Minister Tony Blair approved a plan of the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 for a US-led "counter-insurgency surge" against Hamas.
The plan recommended inter alia "Degrading the capabilities of the rejectionists – Hamas, PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] and the [Fatah-linked] Al Aqsa Brigades – through the disruption of their leaderships' communications and command and control capabilities; the detention of key middle-ranking officers; and the confiscation of their arsenals and financial resources".
[6][8] The document notes that Israel was not content with the functioning of the NSF and opposed enhancement of the organisation with munitions and surveillance equipment.
"[8] On 2 April 2005, President Abbas dismissed West Bank national security chief General Haj Ismail Jaber.
By virtue of a bilateral agreement signed between the Italian Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Interior of the Palestinian Authority, the Carabinieri became a partner in the technical and professional training of Palestinian security forces and, for this reason, on 19 March 2014, Carabinieri instructors left Italy for Jericho, where is situated the General Training Centre.
Before the 2003–2005 reforms, numerous separate security forces, all under exclusive control of President Arafat, existed.