Israel Security Chief: 'PA is crumbling, Fatah in disarray'

The Palestinian Authority is crumbling, its leader Mahmoud Abbas is too weak to enforce law and order, his Fatah party is in disarray and Hamas is taking control of the Gaza Strip, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin said on Wednesday during a rare on-the-record briefing with military reporters.

"The Palestinian Authority is barely functional," Diskin said at his headquarters in Ramat Aviv. "(Abbas) has no apparatus to control Fatah. He is a general without soldiers. Giving him more weapons won't give Fatah strength. He needs more motivation."

Preaching a message of doom and gloom for the prospects of a positive times ahead, Diskin said the Palestinians were making enormous efforts to acquire rockets and other weapons in the West Bank, smuggled in from the Sinai....

Diskin said that Hamas and other groups took advantage of the euphoric chaos after the IDF abandoned the Philadelphi corridor to smuggle in huge amounts of weapons and arms as well as return fugitives wanted for organizing terrorist attacks.

In one incident, a Hamas convoy of 15 jeeps crossed one day and returned laden with arms and explosives. According to Shin Bet data, 3,000 rifles, 1.5 million bullets, 150-200 rocket propelled grenades and hundreds of kilograms of explosives have been smuggled in so far.