Abu Mazen’s new Fatah militia performs exhibition exercises in Gaza Wednesday

The 2,000-strong expanded Force 17 set up to guard Mahmoud Abbas is funded by Washington and London – as debkafile reported on April 28.
The new militia is intended to stand up to the Hamas’s military wing Ezz a-din al-Qassam’s roughly 6,000 men.
debkafile adds that the Palestinian Authority’s financial straits notwithstanding, these two forces are paid regular wages. So too are the members of the terrorist umbrella group, the Palestinian Resistance Committees, which derives funds from various sources including criminal activities to pay its 4-5,000 members.
The 6,000-strong Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a branch of Abu Mazen’s Fatah group, covers its payroll mainly with the help of the Lebanese Hizballah and Iran, while the Palestinian Jihad Islami (1,000) relies on assistance from Iran and Syria. Both these groups engage in regular terrorist operations against Israel.
Consequently, up to an estimated 20,000 active terrorists earn a regular income and are able to support their typically large families in the Gaza Strip and West Bank – an estimated 150,000 individuals.
This payroll does not extend to employees of the public sector, or members of the Palestinian population who are not in the employ of a terrorist group. Some are engaged in private enterprises, commerce or farming. But the World Bank recently warned that if international assistance continues to be withheld from the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, some 75% of the Palestinian population will fall below the minimal poverty line and lack essential needs.