By Xinhua
Ramallah : Security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday that they had discovered a Hamas weapons hideout inside a mosque in the West Bank city of Nablus.
“The store contained five automatic rifles, pistols, cartridge magazines, military uniforms and inciting statements for Hamas,” a source from the Ramallah-based Palestinian General Intelligence said.
The source accused Hamas of exploiting mosques and turning them into garrisons instead of using them for worship.
Ministry of religious affairs under the Ramallah-based caretaker government, which was sworn in after Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in June, condemned storing arms in mosques, promising to “restore the mosques’ sacredness.”
Abbas’ security forces have been cracking down on Hamas in the West Bank since mid-June for fears that Hamas might grow up and take control of the territory as what it had done in the Gaza Strip.
In early June, Hamas and rival Fatah militants fought a bitter internal war in the Gaza Strip, leaving over 100 people dead, which prompted Abbas to dismiss the Hamas-led government and appoint a new one in the West Bank city Ramallah.
As a result, the geographically-divided Palestinian territories has been politically split into two parts with two government — with Hamas controlling Gaza and Fatah holding the West Bank.