AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
JERUSALEM: Arms were transferred early Thursday with Israel's blessing to the forces loyal to Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, parliamentary foreign affairs committee chairman Tzahi Hanegbi said.
“By permitting the transfer of these arms last night, we applied a decision taken three weeks ago by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on a recommendation by the security authorities,” Hanegbi told Israeli public radio.
According to the Yediot Aharonot daily, three trucks carrying 950 American M-16 automatic rifles crossed into the West Bank and Gaza from Jordan under Israeli military escort overnight Wednesday and early Thursday.
Some 400 were delivered to Abbas's presidential guard at Ramallah in the West Bank and the remainder went to the same force in Gaza, it said.
The weapons are to enable Abbas “to cope with Hamas”, the hardline Islamist group that leads the Palestinian government, Olmert said at the British parliament in London on Tuesday.
His announcement followed a decision in principle by the Israeli authorities, revealed on May 25, to authorise the supply of light weapons to Abbas's 3,000-strong presidential guard, known as Force 17.
