A militant commander affiliated with Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement was shot dead today.

Egypt has sent a large shipment of weapons to the Gaza Strip to shore up embattled Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli security officials said today.

The ruling Hamas party has accused a key ally of president Mahmoud Abbas of trying to assassinate the prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, inflaming tensions between rival Palestinian factions to their highest point in a decade.

Hamas withdrew a controversial private militia from the streets of the Gaza Strip today, saying it wanted to avoid further infighting with the rival Fatah movement.

Palestinian officials said today they have reached a tentative agreement to absorb about 700 gunmen in the West Bank city of Nablus into the Palestinian security services, pushing forward with a campaign aimed at disarming rogue militants roaming the Palestinian areas.