PA security forces
Photo: AP
PA official claims 7 terror attacks thwarted by Palestinian forces
Palestinian security official tells Ynet his forces foiled planned stabbings, shootings and bombings against Israelis in the West Bank; eager to prevent Hamas from exploiting reconciliation deal as means to dig in inside West Bank, official outlines crackdown on terrorists, including arrest of 46 Hamas affiliates and dozens more hailing from other terror groups.
Seven terror attacks against Israelis in the West Bank were thwarted by Palestinian security forces in October, a Palestinian official claimed Tuesday in an interview with Ynet.
According the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Palestinian security apparatus prevented planned stabbings, shootings and bombings.
Information obtained by Ynet and published at the beginning of the week also illustrated that last month the Palestinian forces arrested scores of Hamas terrorists in the West Bank, despite the reconciliation deal signed in early October between the Gaza-ruling movement and Fatah.
(Photo: Ziv Reinstein)
A total of 46 Hamas terrorists were arrested, while dozens more activists affiliated with other militant factions were also handcuffed, the Palestinian official claimed.
In addition, the official claimed that Palestinian security forces carried out various operations in which weapons and accessories were confiscated, along with ammunitions intended to be used in terror attacks and money earmarked for their funding.
The extensive security activity of the Palestinian security forces carried out against Hamas infrastructures embedded in the West Bank comes shortly after the terror group began ceding control of the Gaza Strip's border crossings with Israel and Egypt to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas as part of the reconciliation agreement brokered by Cairo to end a decade of internal schism.
Rafah crossing
The intensified efforts to clamp down on Hamas in the West Bank however, is also intended to send a clear signal to Israel and the United States that the PA is not willing to permit Hamas to exploit the freshly planted seeds of reconciliation from which a civil and military terror infrastructure could bloom.
With the PA tightening the noose, Hamas has publicly demanded from the Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to instruct the security forces to immediately cease its arrests, which the movement dubbed as “criminal.”
