FATAH RECEIVES GUN SHIPMENTS IN W. BANK

The Fatah movement, bolstered by Western aid, has received new shipments of assault rifles and ammunition.

Palestinian sources said Fatah units in the West Bank received thousands of U.S.-origin M-16 assault rifles. They said the rifles were supplied to Fatah units as part of Israeli-approved Western aid to forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

“The weapons are meant for PA forces but they end up with Fatah in the war against Hamas,” a Palestinian security source said.

[On Thursday, Palestinian gunners fired three Kassam-class, short-range missiles into Israel. Earlier, at least seven people were killed in an Israel Air Force strike on the UNRWA Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.]

In 2006, the United States helped finance the transfer of about 2,000 assault rifles from Jordan to the expanded Presidential Guard led by Abbas.

All of the members of the Guard are Fatah members, often used in anti-Hamas violence in the West Bank over the last month.

“In many cases, the M-16 has replace the Kalashnikov,” the security source said.

Palestinian sources said the U.S.-financed plan to expand the Presidential Guard from 2,500 to about 6,000 has led to a weapons flood in the West Bank. They said the Abbas force was being trained in the West Bank as well as in Egypt and Jordan for what was expected to be a confrontation with the Hamas-run PA.

For its part, Hamas has encountered difficulties in smuggling weapons into the West Bank. The sources said Hamas has sought to bring weapons from the Sinai Peninsula into Israel’s Negev Desert and into the West Bank.

“There are some shipments of Hamas weapons that get through, but the amounts are small compared to what Fatah is openly receiving,” the source said. “Hamas, however, has the money to buy weapons in the West Bank, including from Fatah people.”