TEL AVIV — Egypt has launched a plan to rearm the Palestinian
Authority.
Israeli security sources said Egypt has begun delivery of light weapons
ammunition and would follow this with other equipment required by PA
security forces. The sources said Egypt also intends to deliver AK-47
assault rifles, pistols, and rocket-propelled grenades and launchers.
"We have completed a study and we found that indeed the PA needs
weapons," Haim Ramon, an Israeli Cabinet minister, said.
On Nov. 6, Egypt completed its first formal delivery of AK-47 ammunition
to the PA. The delivery, which a Palestinian source said also included light
weapons, took place from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula via the Rafah border
crossing and into the Gaza Strip.
In August 2005, Israel agreed to an Egyptian demand to export weapons
and munitions to the PA, the sources said. They said such exports could
decrease PA dependency on weapons smuggling from the Sinai Peninsula.
The sources said the United States would fund the purchase of Egyptian
weapons and ammunition to the PA. They said Egyptian deliveries of arms and
weapons would be limited amid heavy opposition by the Israeli military.
"The Palestinian police in Gaza say they want to fight Hamas," Israel
National Security Council chairman Giora Eiland said. "It cannot fight Hamas
and Islamic Jihad with sticks and stones, so we have to give them the
equipment."
