16 PA security personnel killed while attacking Israelis

‘This pattern of behavior remains unchanged. The Palestinian Authority not only fails to oppose terrorism, it actively endorses it,’ the researchers concluded.

By Josh Hasten, JNS

Israeli NGO Regavim, dedicated to the protection of the country’s national lands and resources, released an extensive report on Jan. 2 highlighting the involvement of members of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) in terrorism targeting Israelis.

No fewer than 16 PASF members were killed while attacking Israeli civilians and soldiers, the report, titled “Officers by Day—Terrorists by Night,” reveals. More than 80 were killed, injured or arrested between 2021 and 2023 while engaging in comparable acts of terrorism.

“The Palestinian Authority’s involvement in encouraging and promoting terrorism goes beyond direct acts of violence, as the P.A. publicly celebrates terrorists who are not on the PASF payroll by providing military-style honor guards and funerals, particularly for those affiliated with Hamas,” Regavim added.

While the PASF are cracking down on Islamist terrorists in P.A.-controlled cities, especially Jenin, Regavim’s researchers concluded that such confrontations are actually “a means of consolidating the Palestinian Authority’s power and legitimacy as the best alternative for ‘the day after’ the ongoing war—in Judea and Samaria, as well as in Gaza.”

Moshe Shmueli, director of Regavim’s Field Division and a high-ranking officer in the IDF reserves intimately familiar with the issue, said, “These operations can best be described as window dressing—too little and far too late to be taken seriously. The P.A. is not part of the solution, it has been neck-deep in terrorism for decades, and recent theatrics have not changed the DNA of PASF.”

The Regavim report shared that “the P.A. honors fallen terrorists from the very same groups that are now ostensibly being targeted by [its] enforcement activities, naming streets, public squares, and even schools and educational programs after them, embedding their legacy into the community’s daily life.

“This glorification extends into cultural and educational domains, where terrorists are extolled through music, poetry and school curricula, influencing the next generation.

“Additionally, the P.A.’s ‘pay-for-slay’ program offers financial incentives to terrorists and their families, thereby economically rewarding acts of terrorism.

“This pattern of behavior remains unchanged. The Palestinian Authority not only fails to oppose terrorism, it actively endorses it,” the researchers concluded.

The P.A. is protecting itself

Maurice Hirsch, director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs and the former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, commented on the report, telling JNS, “The PASF has played a leading role in Palestinian terror against Israel for over two and a half decades. P.A. officials openly gloat about the fact.

“The Oslo delusion envisaged nothing more than a P.A. police force,” he added. However, the P.A. “has built a huge terror army. That army has been funded and trained by both the U.S. and the Europeans.

“While the PASF either actively participated in terror or ignored the efforts of the other terror organizations to attack Israel and Israelis, it only kicked into action against Palestinians, as we are seeing in Jenin, when those terrorists threatened the Fatah’s dictatorial rule,” Hirsch said.

Likud MK Dan Illouz told JNS, “The P.A. is not a peace partner—it is a terror regime in suits. Its ‘security forces’ are nothing more than terrorists with badges, murdering Israelis while pretending to fight extremism. This is not a bug in the system, it is the system. It’s not infiltration, it’s policy.”

The P.A. has “fueled terror, paying salaries to murderers, glorifying jihad and inciting genocide against Jews” for decades. “Enough with the illusions—this is a factory of hatred, not a future state,” he said.

“Israel must end all cooperation, cut all funding, and expose the P.A. for what it truly is—a clear and present danger to peace,” Illouz said.

Next steps

Naomi Kahn, director of Regavim’s International Division, told JNS, “It’s time to stop living in the fantasy world in which the Palestinian Authority is a ‘moderating force,’ a ‘partner for peace,’ a ‘legitimate alternative’ for autonomous Arab governance of any territory from which terrorism can continue to threaten the lives of Israeli citizens.

“Regavim has been monitoring official Palestinian Authority publications, where the uncomfortable truth is clearly and repeatedly stated at every opportunity,” Kahn said.

“The P.A. will never stop funding, supporting and actively participating in violence against Israelis, and has never abandoned the raison d’être of the PLO, the founding pillar of the Palestinian Authority: the eradication of the State of Israel and the ethnic cleansing—through local and internationalized violent ‘resistance’—of every Jew from the Middle East.”

Therefore, the Israeli government “has a moral obligation to disempower these genocidal forces, to protect the lives of Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of Israel, to fight the forces of jihadism, and to reclaim historical, moral, political rights to life, liberty and sovereignty for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel,” Kahn said.

MK Ohad Tal of the Religious Zionism Party told JNS he agreed that the P.A. must go.

“The fact that the Palestinian Authority and its officers encourage, support and even participate in terrorism is not new. Therefore, any call to strengthen the P.A. is a call to spread terrorism. After October 7, we are done fooling ourselves—the Palestinian Authority must be dismantled!” Tal said.

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