In a move to tighten control of the Gaza Strip, deposed prime minister Ismail Haneya of Hamas on Saturday appointed a new security chief for the Gaza Strip to replace a pro-Fatah command, local TV reported.

Khaled Abu Helal, spokesman for the Interior Ministry led by Haneya, announced the appointment on the Hamas-related Al-Aqsa television.

According to the spokesman, the new security chief was Major General Said Fanouna and he had been tasked with reorganizing the security forces.

Earlier in the day, chief of Palestinian civil police ordered all policemen to stop dealing with the deposed Hamas-Fatah unity government and its Interior Ministry.

Brigadier Kamal al-Shiekh, the pro-Fatah police chief, told a press conference in the West Bank that he issued the order on Friday night, hours before Hamas planned to deploy civil police in the Gaza Strip as the territory fell in Hamas' grip.

"It's forbidden to deal with the Ministry of Interior of the former Ismail Haneya government, receiving orders from it or referring to it," Shiekh said in the written order.

Shiekh said his decision conformed with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' decree to dissolve the unity government, which took office on March 17.

Abbas, also leader of Fatah movement, sacked the unity government on Thursday. By Friday Hamas militants had seized all security compounds in the Gaza Strip.

The seizure by Hamas came as a result of days of bloody fighting between Hamas and Fatah, which killed more than 130 Palestinians, most of whom security members affiliated with Fatah.

Source: Xinhua