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Senior Israeli official: PA has done little in fighting terrorists

February 11, 2014 at 1:55 pm

After the recent killing of two Israeli soldiers in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, senior Israeli officials have accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) security services of doing little in fighting “Palestinian terrorism.”


However, the circumstances surrounding both killings remain ambiguous. Palestinian residents in Hebron told MEMO that Gabriel Kobi, the soldier shot in Hebron, was probably killed by friendly fire. They make this assumption because the area where he was killed is entirely surrounded by military bases.

According to a report published today in the Israeli daily, Haaretz, officials accuse the PA security services of “complete incompetence.” They claimed that the PA has not taken adequate steps to arrests terrorists; pointing out that no terrorists had been tried in Palestinian courts during the entire past year.

Haaretz further reported its source as saying: “Over the past few months, there have been numerous instances in which terror attacks were foiled, all solely done by the Israelis.”

On its part, the newspaper noted that the accusations against the PA security services mark a sharp change in Israeli attitudes towards their Palestinian collaborators. It follows a long period during which the occupation army and the Shin Bet Security Service had nothing but praise for the security cooperation with the PA forces.

Meanwhile, Israeli analysts believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unlikely to take any serious measures against the PA in order to avoid international criticism and blame, should the peace talks collapse.