The Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip announced a series of promotions, transfers and new appointments Aug. 4, including a new chief of intelligence and chief of staff. Deputy Interior Minister Kamel Abu Madi said that all the personnel changes fall within the normal framework of rotating positions and do not involve the creation of new posts. Others, however, disagree, arguing that there is no precedent or legal basis in Palestinian governance for a chief of intelligence assigned to the Interior Ministry in Gaza.

Abu Madi told Al-Monitor that the appointments were made without coordination with the interior minister and prime minister of the government of national consensus, Rami Hamdallah. "Since the announcement of the [consensus] government on June 1, 2014, communication between the prime minister and us has been severed,” he said. Responding to criticism concerning the legal basis for the changes at the ministry, he said, “To those who are speaking in legal terms, I ask them: How could the minister of interior leave his ministry without any budget or any contact? Before we are questioned about the legality of our work, we need to ask the minister about his legal work.”

Islam Shahwan, a researcher specializing in security and a former spokesman for Gaza’s Interior Ministry, does not believe that introducing new positions to the existing governing system is legally legitimate. He claimed, however, that the positions to which new people were appointed by the Interior Ministry had previously existed within the Palestinian security forces structure.

Shahwan told Al-Monitor, “The intelligence apparatus is not something new. After the Palestinian division in 2007 [when Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah], many of those working in the security services, including intelligence, vacated their positions, leaving the institution almost empty. However, about a year and a half ago, the security apparatus in the Gaza Strip was reactivated and some experienced individuals joined it, as well as some of the members of the old staff. An unknown figure [whose name was not publicly announced] was put in charge of running the security apparatus until the administrative and structural situation is restored in order to appoint a chief.”