Proactive Planning in the Palestinian Security Forces and Its Role in the Effectiveness of Handling Security Crises in Palestine

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate the level of implementation of proactive planning within Palestinian security agencies and to examine its role in enhancing their efficiency in dealing with security crises amid a politically, economically, and security-wise unstable environment. The significance of this study arises from the increasing necessity to adopt preventive approaches based on prior preparedness and scientific planning, rather than relying solely on post-crisis reactive measures. The research adopted a descriptive-correlational approach, utilizing a structured questionnaire as the primary data collection tool. The questionnaire was distributed to a stratified random sample of senior officers from the three main security agencies responsible for crisis management in the northern governorates of Palestine—namely, the General Intelligence, Preventive Security, and Military Intelligence. A total of (254) valid responses were collected and analyzed. Data were processed using (SPSS) for descriptive statistics and (SmartPLS4) for structural equation modeling and hypothesis testing. Findings revealed a high level of proactive planning implementation across security agencies (overall mean = 3.75). Among the dimensions studied, "strategic goal setting" scored the highest (mean = 3.91), followed by "internal and external environment analysis" (3.84), "risk analysis," and "future forecasting." The dimension of "resource allocation" recorded the lowest average (3.60), indicating room for improvement in the efficient distribution of human and material resources. The results also indicated a good overall level of crisis management performance (mean = 3.73), particularly in "early warning signal detection" (3.75) and "preparedness and prevention" (3.73). However, "recovery and continuity" registered the lowest average (3.67), suggesting challenges in resuming operations post-crisis. Structural modeling results demonstrated a strong, positive, and statistically significant relationship between proactive planning and security crisis management, with a direct path coefficient of 0.898, a T-value of (49.676), and a p-value less than (0.001). This confirms the critical role of proactive planning in enhancing the responsiveness and operational efficiency of security agencies during crises. The study recommends institutionalizing proactive planning within security policies, developing specialized strategic analysis units, strengthening the use of information systems and data analytics for crisis forecasting, and fostering research partnerships to create planning models tailored to the Palestinian context.