CAIRO — Egypt has been struggling to contain clashes between Palestinians and Bedouins in the troubled Sinai Peninsula.

Security sources said Palestinians from the ruling Fatah movement have been battling Bedouin tribes around the northern Sinai capital of El Arish. They said both sides have used automatic weapons and other firearms in fighting that erupted from an alleged Palestinian assault on a Bedouin girl.

About 150 members of the Palestinian Authority´s Preventive Security Apparatus have been in El Arish since 2007. The PSA officers escaped the Hamas assault and takeover of the Gaza Strip for haven in neighboring Sinai.

"Security forces have been stationed at key points around El Arish," a security source said. The sources said the battle between the Bedouin tribe of Al Khadri and Fatah gunmen began in late December. They said the clashes, sparked by the beating of a Bedouin girl, has resulted in the shooting of one person. Bedouin leaders have demanded tens of thousands of dollars in compensation for the assault.

Egyptian security forces have been reinforced throughout El Arish and the rest of northeastern Sinai amid attempts to smuggle weapons to the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. On Dec. 19, security forces were said to have found and confiscated an arms cache about 10 kilometers west of the Gaza-Sinai border.

The sources said the cache in the town of Sheik Zwayid contained weapons and explosives, including grenades and artillery shells. Egypt has reported a series of weapons seizures in central and eastern Sinai this year. (Copyright © 2010 East West Services, Inc. 12/21/10)