Palestinian official: Low-key security coordination continues with Israel

“The PA does not maintain an open coordination due to pressure from the Palestinian street, which denounces the coordination.”

By Baruch Yedid, TPS

A senior official in the Palestinian Authority told the Tazpit Press Service on Wednesday morning that “the security coordination continues and it will not be possible to disconnect it in practice.”

Ramallah announced on Thursday the suspension of security coordination with Israel in the aftermath of an Israeli counter-terror raid in the Jenin Refugee Camp.

Undercover Israeli forces entered the  camp in an unusual daylight raid to arrest three local Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders who were planning “significant” terror attacks. Clashes broke out with Palestinians firing guns and throwing Molotov cocktails and stones. The PIJ said its members also detonated a number of explosives around the United Nations-administered camp.

Ten Palestinians, mostly members of the terror group, were killed during the clashes.

The Palestinian source told TPS that “security contacts with Israel continue despite the serious situation and the steps taken by the Israeli government. But at the same time, the PA does not maintain an open coordination due to the pressure from the Palestinian street which denounces the coordination.”

The source also said that during a recent meeting of Palestinian governors and security officials, governors were instructed to keep their security coordination low-key.

According to the source, governors were specifically instructed on the one hand not to hold any meetings with Israelis, but at the same time they were told that they must answer every phone call with Israeli officials and even respond vigorously to every incident security in which Israelis are involved.

Coordination between Israeli and Palestinian security officials largely involves sharing intelligence to thwart terror attacks and Hamas threats to the PA. The coordination was agreed upon in the original Oslo accords of 1993.

Security coordination is deeply unpopular in Palestinian opinion polls. A December survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 72 percent of Palestinians said they support armed terror groups; 87% said the PA had no right to arrest members of the terror groups. Palestinian critics claim that Israel “outsources” its security to the PA through coordination.

In an ongoing sweep against terror in Judea and Samaria, the IDF has thwarted 500 terror attacks and arrested more than 2,500 Palestinian suspects. The Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Wave Breaker in the spring of 2022 following a surge of Palestinian terror attacks which killed 19 people.