'Palestinians Uncover Hamas Weapons Cache in Ramallah'
Palestinian security chief says rockets, launchers and mortar shells likely being gathered to target the Palestinian Authority, and not Israel.

Haaretz
December 22, 2010

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/1941/palestinians-uncover-hamas-weapons-cache-in

Palestinian security forces have uncovered in recent weeks a cache of rockets, missile launchers and mortar shells belonging to Hamas militants in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the authority's security chief said on Wednesday.

Andan Damiri, who heads the Palestinian Preventative Security Forces, told reporters that the weapons were most likely intended against targets within the Palestinian Authority, not Israel.

Damiri accused Hamas of incitement against the ruling body in the West Bank and of trying to foment anarchy in the territory.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, meanwhile, urged the rival factions in the West Bank to avoid further sectarianism as it could derail plans for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The internal Palestinian conflicts would only help Israel perpetuate the separation between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, he said.

Earlier Wednesday, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the Palestinian Authority was wary of Israel's recent attacks on the Gaza Strip, warning that such activity only elevates the anarchy and bloodshed in the area.

"Military solutions such as these won't attain a thing and would only complicate the situation," Erekat warned.

Meanwhile, IDF officials have said that Israel will deploy tanks equipped with a miniature missile-defense system along the Gaza Strip border in the coming weeks now that Palestinian militants are using a sophisticated, tank-piercing missile.

Violence has been escalating along the Gaza border in recent weeks, and IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi disclosed on Tuesday that militants from the Palestinian coastal strip had for the first time fired a Kornet missile earlier this month and that it penetrated an Israeli tank.

Gaza's Hamas rulers have not confirmed or denied possessing the missiles.

Israeli officials say the Iranian-backed Gaza militants who once relied on crude, locally made projectiles, have steadily acquired more powerful and accurate missiles produced overseas.

The IDF officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss such matters publicly, alleged the laser-guided Kornet had come from Iran.

They provided no proof and it was not clear how the missiles were delivered. Hamas, which has close ties with Iran, controls a network of smuggling tunnels along Gaza's southern border with Egypt.

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