US and EU 'threaten' to suspend PA security aid

Israeli sources have claimed that US and EU officials have threatened to partially boycott aid for the Palestinian Authority if resistance groups became part of its security services in Gaza, Quds Press has reported. Details of the threats were passed to PA Intelligence Chief Majed Faraj, as well as to the heads of the other PA security agencies in Ramallah.

The threats emerged following reports about Palestinian efforts to partially merge the PA security services in the West Bank and those run by Hamas in the Gaza Strip as part of the reconciliation deal reached between Islamic Resistance Movement and Fatah in Cairo on 12 October. The Americans and Europeans made their displeasure known despite the fact that it is near impossible to merge the Fatah-run security agencies in the West Bank and those in the Gaza Strip, the sources explained.

The EU has invested tens of millions of Euros in training and supplying arms to the PA. The US also trains and pays for the security services in the West Bank led by the PA and Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas, which play what Abbas has called a “sacred” role in security coordination with the Israeli occupation forces.

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Incredibly, the cash-strapped PA has an estimated 70,000 security personnel in the occupied West Bank alone, whose job is to protect Israel rather than Palestinian citizens.