Abbas' guards deployed at key Gaza commercial crossing
25/6/2006 10:42
Elite troops loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were deployed at
the Karni commercial crossing on the eastern Gaza Strip border with Israel
yesterday, Palestinian security sources said.
The sources, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said that about 40 members of the Force 17 of the
Presidential Guards were deployed at Karni and would take over security
responsibility at the crossing, the main terminal for goods in and out of the
Gaza Strip.
Abbas has reinforced the presence of his elite forces in the Gaza
Strip since the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) defeated his Fatah movement
in a January election and took control of the Palestinian government in late
March.
Forces loyal to Abbas have also manned the Rafah crossing on the
southern Gaza border with Egypt. Rafah is the only exit for Gazans to travel
aboard.
Tensions between Fatah and Hamas have been high over the security
control of the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas-led government established its own
security forces and deployed them in the Gaza streets in May. Fierce clashes
between Fatah supporters and Hamas loyalists have claimed the lives of over a
dozen people with many other wounded during the past month.
Hamas and Fatah
leaders have pledged to end confrontations between their followers, calling for
restraint and calm.
Xinhua
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