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Following these successive efforts, and the Jews’ continued aggression against the Gaza area and threats to Egypt and the neighboring Arab countries, the Egyptian government responded by opening enlistment to Palestinians in the Gaza area and recruiting a brigade of them under the command of the Egyptian Army.

Because I longed to expand the recruitment of Palestinians, especially refugees, and turn suitable men among them into fighters, I submitted a letter on 19 Sha‘ban 1375, 1 April 1956, to President Gamal Abd al-Nasser, asking him to expand the recruitment of Palestinians and apply to them the conscription regulations and military laws in force in Egypt. The letter read:

Arab Higher Committee for Palestine S/19/8/130

To President Gamal Abd al-Nasser President of the Egyptian Government, Cairo

Peace, God’s mercy, and His blessings be upon you. The Arab Higher Committee for Palestine, in the name of the Palestinian Arab people, offers Your Excellency its sincere thanks and appreciation for what sisterly Egypt, the greater sister, is doing by opening the way for Palestinians in the Gaza area to volunteer for military service, bear arms, and train in preparation for fulfilling their duty toward their homeland, which finds in beloved Egypt its best reserve and strongest support. It expresses its pleasure at enabling the Palestinians to perform this national duty, which they are the people most entitled to perform.

In view of recent developments, the Jews’ determination to carry out their treacherous attacks, and the vigilance and alertness prevailing in Arab public opinion, the Arab Committee draws Your Excellency’s attention to the need to expand the recruitment, training, and arming of Palestinians and to take the measures usually followed in emergencies, making recruitment of Palestinians general, training those of military age, preparing them for defense, strengthening the regular Egyptian forces, and carrying out all the tasks required by the military situation and its various developments. The Arab Committee believes that the situation requires the honored Egyptian government to apply to the Palestinians the conscription regulations and military laws in force