More lawlessness in the West Bank...

Is Abbas ever going to realize that the key to progress in the middle east is the disarming of terrorists.

Palestinian gunmen and police exchanged gunfire in two West Bank towns Monday, defying PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' attempts to crack down on lawlessness and put peacemaking with Israel on a more solid footing.

In Tulkarem, a gang of suspected car thieves and arms dealers fired on the local police station before dawn, security officials said.

More than 400 police officers were mobilized to hunt down the head of the gang and arrest him.

More than 150 of them formerly belonged to a faction allied with Abbas' ruling Fatah movement, and have joined his security forces since Israel turned over control of Tulkarem to the Palestinians in March.

The Palestinian security forces were severely weakened in more than four years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, allowing gunmen to control many areas of the West Bank. Since reaching a February 8 cease-fire with Israel, Abbas has been trying to co-opt gunmen by offering them jobs and guaranteeing their safety.

Maher Dweikat, a senior security chief in Tulkarem, said the former members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades continue to be armed, but as police.

In Jenin, a terror stronghold, dozens of Palestinian gunmen and police exchanged fire for a second straight day Monday. Mohammed Abu Arraj, the local leader of a faction with ties to Abbas' Fatah movement, said police shot him in the leg without provocation as he drove in Jenin.

Police denied the allegation. But a dozen gunmen, responding to Abu Arraj's claims, opened fire on police in the streets, witnesses said.