 | ...PA spokesmen blame Israel. |
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday said Gazaâs border with Egypt is under control after days of chaos.
| I'm not a big fat guy anymore, either... |
âThe chaos that existed here is over,â Abbas said following a tour of the area.
| My hair's all grown back... |
Palestinian security forces said they sealed the border early Sunday, halting the flow of people into Egypt.
| If anybody needs me, Patti Ann Browne and I will be shacked up at the Motel 6 until tomorrow afternoon... |
Meanwhile, Palestinian security forces are caught in the ultimate Catch 22. Expected to enforce law and order in the newly âliberatedâ Gaza Strip, they complain they are too weak to carry out the task.
| Therefore they need more arms and ammunition. We know. We've heard... |
Officers in the Palestinian Authority paint a picture of a force that has been battered by Israeli attacks during the five-year intifada and the defection of its own men into armed militias. They worry openly about the spectre of civil war following Israelâs historic pullout.
| I think this apathy meter needs calibrated. It's reading in the red zone... |
Colonel Jamal Kayed, head of security in the southern Gaza Strip, faults Israel for the weakness of his forces.
| Who else could possibly be to blame? |
âAll of the time, you (Israel) are preventing us from getting armed and trained and then you want us to fight the Islamic movements,â he says. âI feel the Israelis are looking for the Palestinian Authority to get into a civil war and whoever wins will be even weaker so Israel can dictate terms to them.â
| Jamal's a bright boy; nothing gets past him. |
Colonel Rifat Kolah, commander of preventive security forces in southern Gaza, accuses Israel of deliberately cutting off their weapons supplies.
| Good Gawd! They did? Why would they do that? |
âIsrael has insisted on weakening the security forces. The first two years of the intifada saw all the Palestinian security centres destroyed and attacked by the Israelis,â Kolah said. âUntil now, they donât allow the Palestinian Authority to start accepting new equipment.â |