Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has started deploying his own forces at Gaza’s main commercial crossing, boosting security and limiting the role of the Hamas-led government, officials said on Friday. So far at least 35 members of Abbas’s elite presidential guard have taken up positions near the Karni crossing, through which virtually all trade between Israel and the impoverished coastal strip must pass, Western diplomats said. The small deployment started quietly about 10 days ago and is expected to grow in the coming weeks. The United States and other Western powers want to see Karni and other crossings under Abbas’s direct control. With US help, Abbas’s office has been drawing up plans to tighten security at Karni and bolster a border agency that answers to him rather than Hamas. Saeb Erekat, a top Abbas aide, said the presidential guard was being deployed at Karni because “it’s under the president’s jurisdiction and the president can count on them to do the job”. “We’re working very hard in order to reopen Karni (fully). That’s why we’re trying to provide for a secure environment,” he said. Israel appears to be going along with the guard’s expansion. “Israeli officials are saying those guys are good and should take over as many border posts as possible,” a Western source familiar with the discussions said.