LONDON - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday he had given the go ahead for a shipment of weapons to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, whose loyalists are engaged in bitter infighting with the militant Islamic Hamas.
Violence between armed members of Hamas and forces from Abbas' rival Fatah movement have killed 20 Palestinians over the past month.
"I authorized last night the transfer of arms and ammunition to chairman Abu Mazen in order to strengthen his presidential guard, so he can strengthen his forces against Hamas," Olmert said, referring to Abbas by his widely-used nickname.
"I did this because we are running out of time and we need to help Abu Mazen," Olmert told said at a meeting with members of Britain's Parliament.
Olmert later traveled to Paris for two days of talks with French leaders. The arms shipment includes about 375 rifles and ammunition, said an Olmert aide, who was not authorized to speak to the media by name.
Explaining his plan for an Israeli pullout from much of the West Bank if a peace deal cannot be negotiated with the Palestinians, Olmert told the lawmakers that Israel would not quit the entire territory, because to do so could leave it vulnerable to attack.
"We'll never agree to pull out of all of the territories, because the borders of 1967 are indefensible," he said.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and other territory in the 1967 Mideast War. Last year, Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers from all of the Gaza Strip.
Tensions between Abbas and the newly elected Hamas government have spiraled into violence.
Hundreds of Palestinian police loyal to Abbas went on a rampage Monday against the Hamas administration, riddling the parliament building and Cabinet offices with bullets before torching them in retaliation for an attack by Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip.
The rampage raised new fears the Palestinians were headed toward civil war.
Israel has sought to isolate Hamas and called on world powers to freeze financial aid to the Palestinian government after the militant group won elections that brought it into control of the Palestinian Cabinet and legislature.
