Terror leader: Arms race developing

Recent US shipments of weapons to bolster activists from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization have prompted an arms race with rival Hamas, a senior Hamas leader told WND.

Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' military wing, said weapons his terror group has been smuggling into the Gaza Strip from neighboring Egypt to counter the American arms shipments to Fatah will be used against Israel.

He claimed the US weapons provided to Fatah will eventually fall into the hands of other Palestinian groups, including Hamas.

Hamas and Fatah have been engaging in heavy firefights the past few days, after Abbas this weekend called for new elections. The move, rejected by Hamas, was widely seen as an attempt to dissolve the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

"The more the Americans give Abu Mazen (Abbas) weapons, the more we will have in the future weapons to use against the Israelis, because it incites the different organizations to intensify their own supply of weapons," said Abu Abdullah of Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas' declared "resistance" department.

'US arms will be property of all Palestinians'

"These American weapons will be one day the property of all the Palestinian people and its resistance, including Hamas," Abu Abdullah said. "The US gives weapons to Fatah during internal Palestinian clashes, but one day when we go back to carrying out operations together these (weapons) will be shared."

Abu Abdullah confirmed his group has been engaging in large-scale smuggling.

"It is no secret that the Palestinian resistance has succeeded in developing its own ways and routes in order to be supplied with weapons to fight the occupation. (The Egyptian) Sinai, the tunnels, all this has been said in the media but we receive weapons from different elements plus what we produce ourselves," Abu Abdullah told WND.

"Thank Allah, in spite all measures taken against us, we are succeeding to have enough weapons," he continued. "Even if it is seen these days that these weapons are used in our internal problems, very soon they will be used against the Zionist enemy."