The Palestinian Authority spends more on its security than the combined budgetry disbursements it makes for education and health services.

[5] In June 2009 at Bar-Ilan University, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: ″We cannot be expected to agree to a Palestinian state without ensuring that it is demilitarised.″[5] Article XII of the Oslo II Accord states: Article II of Annex I stipulates: The Annex allows a security force limited to six branches:[8] Following the Oslo Accords in 1993, the number of separate Palestinian security forces, all under the exclusive control of President Arafat, had grown considerably.

Based on the 1994 Cairo Agreement, "a strong police force" was formed which steadily grew far beyond the agreed numbers, to include soldiers and returnees from the diaspora.

[3] It was the result of a power struggle between Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and President Arafat, and international – mainly American – pressure.

[16] Eventually, Arafat's close associate Hakam Balawi became the new Interior Minister in Qurei's Government, which was approved on 12 November 2003.

[17] Again under international pressure, on 17 July 2004 Arafat announced further changes to the PSS, reducing the eight separate security divisions to three branches, after 6 people were kidnapped in Gaza.

[18] It fueled protests and internal clashes between rival sections of the security forces staffed by members of Arafat's party Fatah.

[19] After his election as President of the Palestinian National Authority in January 2005, Mahmoud Abbas continued the reform of the security services.

On 14 April 2005, Abbas confirmed that the previous 12 security divisions were to be merged into three branches, in accordance with the 2004 decree of his predecessor Arafat.

The new force was part of the Civil Police Force and its tasks were inter alia described as: implement decisions of the courts and the Public Prosecution; protect the buildings housing the courts, the judges and the Public Prosecution; and transport and protect persons held in custody and convicts.

[25] Hamas won the parliamentary elections of January 2006 and formed a Hamas-led government in March, leading to a power struggle over the security services with the Fatah Abbas presidency.

However, already on 20 February media reported that President Abbas had named the Fatah-affiliated Rashid Abu Shbak head of the internal security in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Though Seyam would technically be Abu Shbak's boss, any dispute between the two would be resolved in the Abbas-headed National Security Council.

[27][33][3] On 20 April, Interior Minister Said Seyam appointed Jamal Abu Samhadana, the head of the militant Popular Resistance Committees, Director General of Executive Force.

The Ministry resisted Abbas' order that by then 6,000 members of Executive Force be incorporated into the security apparatus loyal to the president's Fatah movement.

The large defense budget has been criticized because it is seen as part of the internal oppression system, as well as maintaining the crumbling Fatah movement’s hegemony and the status quo with Israel.

Before the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, the PA maintained a small Coast Guard, using 5 motorboats equipped with machine guns along the Gazan seacoast.

Medical reports confirmed the systematic practice of torture in Palestinian Authority jails in the West Bank.

In both, West Bank and Gaza people were arrested or summoned for posting or liking messages on social media, primarily on Facebook, critical of respectively the PA or Hamas.

[43] In March 2016, the London-based Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR-UK) reported that in 2015, PA security forces in the West Bank arbitrarily arrested or summoned 1,715 civilians.

The bulk of the arrests and summons, while violating Human Rights, were carried out by the Preventive Security Force and the General Intelligence.

[46][47] Security cooperation between Israel and Palestine involves the sharing of intelligence between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli army.

[48] A Palestinian Civil Police Force was established pursuant to Oslo II, Article XII, a "Joint Coordination and Cooperation Committee for Mutual Security Purposes", "to guarantee public order and internal security for the Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip".

[48] Mazin Qumsiyeh, a civil society leader in Bethlehem, said the Oslo Accords had effectively turned the PA into a ″security sub-contractor″, and ″the job of the Palestinian security forces is to enforce the occupation on Israel’s behalf″.

[52] In March 2015, the PLO Central Council formally decided to end the security coordination,[53] but eventually, the decision was not implemented.