Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal told a news conference in a mosque in Gaza City that Seyam named Jamal AbuSamhadaneh, commander of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), as the head of the new security forces, which would be formed by militants from other factions.

The PRC is a militant group involved in homemade rocket attacks against Israel.

"The new force can never be an alternative to police forces,"said Abu Hilal, adding that it is an executive force that would support the police forces in ending law and order.

Abu Samhadaneh would be promoted to colonel and serve as the new commissioner general of the Palestinian Ministry of Interior, a top aide to Seyam, according to the spokesman.

Sources said that the PRC armed wing commander Abu Yousef al-Guga, who was killed in Gaza in a mysterious car explosion last month, was promised a position in the interior ministry shortly before he was assassinated.