PA infighting to escalate, Shin Bet official says
"As far as Israel is concerned, the clashes in the Palestinian Authority will continue and will escalate, Shin Bet deputy chief Y. said during Sunday's cabinet meeting. "The reason we say this is because each side is attempting to arm itself and is preparing for the next wave of clashes," he added.
Addressing the ceasefire declared by the two organizations over the weekend, Y. said that "this is at least the tenth claming effort, but it doesn’t seem as if it's going toward a truce."....
Minister Gideon Ezra asked during the meeting whether Israel was doing enough to bolster the moderates and whether Israel could consider releasing Palestinian prisoners, including Marwan Barghouti, due to this popularity......
The deputy chief also addressed Thursday's raid of the Islamic University in Gaza, and particularly the reports the Iranian arms experts were seized during the raid.
"It was an unusual activity," he said. "We have no confirmation that there were Iranian elements there. This information should be taken with a grain of salt. We have no intelligence and media indication regarding a possibility of Iranian elements."
Following the report on the raid, Palestinian sources said that the most senior Iranian agent, a general, was in charge of Hamas' arms project and had even trained activists manufacturing explosives at the university labs.....
Palestinian President Abbas and Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal are expected to meet Tuesday in another effort to reach a truce. The meeting, according to Y., may also be joined by Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan......
"The Fatah organizations are not controlled by the Fatah leadership today. This is one of the tragedies of the Palestinian people in the past few years. If in the past Hamas and Jihad were rebellious and did not listen to the leadership, today Fatah is in the same situation.
"These organizations have no central command and no father figure, and this is one of the main problems, both in the Palestinian society and towards us. This is a process which has been going on for three years now." "
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