PA freezes security cooperation with Israel over Jenin operation

No security coordination until further notice and a complaint will be filed with the International Court of Justice as the IDF’s anti-terror raid is called a “massacre.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Palestinian Authority (PA) announced Monday evening that it was immediately ceasing all security coordination with Israel due to the IDF’s anti-terror Operation Home and Garden in Jenin that began that morning, which it deemed a “massacre.”

“There is no more security coordination with the occupation government,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, after an emergency meeting was convened in the PA capital, Ramallah. “The leadership has decided to go to the [UN] Security Council to implement the decision to protect the Palestinian people, [and] approach the International Court of Justice to add a case on the massacre in Jenin.”

Earlier in the day, Abu Rudeineh had termed the operation a “war crime” against “our defenseless people.” Abbas had called for international sanctions on Israel and an immediate halt to the “terror aggression” on Jenin.

The IDF sent a large force into the Palestinian Authority-administered city to root out as much of its terrorist infrastructure as possible in a limited timeframe, as the government announced it has no intentions of staying there long-term.

In pinpoint raids both on the ground and from the air, hundreds of improvised explosive devices have been found in various caches, including under a mosque, command and control centers and weapons production labs have been destroyed, and more than 100 terrorists have been arrested.

Ten terrorists have been killed in live fire clashes with the IDF troops and some 100 have been wounded, according to the Palestinians’ own reports.

Ironically, the American State Department had put out a statement in the evening saying, “Today’s events further underscore the urgent need for Israeli and Palestinian security forces to work together to improve the security situation in the West Bank.”

The U.S. had also reaffirmed Israel’s “right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups,” while urging Jerusalem to “take all possible precautions to prevent the loss of civilian lives.”

Israel’s unified messaging about the Jenin operation has emphasized that it is not aimed at the PA, which officially controls Jenin, one of the largest cities in its territory, but whose security forces have not been able to stop local Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists from escalating their attacks on Jewish drivers and settlements in Judea and Samaria over the last several months.

Jenin has been the source of hundreds of shootings, firebombings and rock-throwing incidents that have recently claimed the lives of several Israelis, and the regional council heads have sharply criticized the government for abandoning its citizens to the constant terror.