Word: gaza
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...spend $43 million beefing up Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas. She countered Congressional concerns over aid reaching terrorists now that Abbas has bucked the U.S. by joining with Hamas in a national unity government, pointing out that the money would be spent on securing borders into Gaza and strengthening the Palestinian security force responsible for stopping weapons being smuggled into the territory...
...million will mostly be devoted to training and equipping Abbas's 4,000-strong Presidential Guard, whose primary responsibilities are to protect the president and visiting dignitaries - such as Secretary Rice herself - and to guard the crossings into the Palestinian territory of Gaza at Rafah and Karni. But some Western envoys fear that strengthening Abbas' forces could help unravel the unity government. International observers and Palestinians claim that Abbas' Praetorian guard was hardly neutral during the recent civil conflict that wracked the Palestinian territories as gunmen from Fatah and Hamas traded fire for days on end: The president's forces...
...Israelis say Hamas is amassing weapons in Gaza, a 40-km-long sandy strip bordering Egypt with 1.4 million Palestinians, many of them refugees. One Israeli official said that Hamas, using tunnels into Egypt, had smuggled in over 31 tons of high-quality explosives, six times more than in 2005. Israelis say that Hamas now has rockets capable of accurately striking Ashkelon, a major seaport 15 km north of Gaza...
...Hamas' leaders also hinted that if the international community fails to lift its embargo on the Palestinians, the militants might withdraw from the unity government and resume attacks against Israel. During a Friday mosque sermon in Gaza, Haniyeh set a three-month deadline for the international community to recognize the new Palestinian government. Otherwise, he warned, "We Palestinians will take a decision to protect our dignity and our interests...
...Usually, the U.S. and Israel are synchronized in their dealings with the Palestinians. But tensions between the two allies emerged during Rice's visit last week. The U.S. is trying to build up Abbas's presidential guard, which is also deployed to halt smuggling along Gaza's Egyptian border and at the Karni crossing into Israel. The State Department is trying to persuade a U.S. Congressional delegation, now in Israel, to support the State Department's request for $59.4 million in non-lethal military aid for Abbas. In practice, Israel is opposing the funding because it thinks that some...