Report - Terrorists in Uniform: PMW Report documenting PA Security Forces involvement in terror

• Fatah: “By day Security Forces, and by night self-sacrificing fighters”
   
• Fatah: “More than 1,500 military operations (i.e., terror attacks) against the Israeli occupation were led by the Fatah Movement members and the [PA] Security Forces members [in 2023]”
     
• PA: “More than roughly 63-65% of the number of Martyrs in the West Bank, in the daily confrontations, are members of the Fatah Movement. And most of them are members of the [PA] Security Forces or their sons”
   
• Fatah: “More than 355 of our Palestinian people’s prisoners inside the prisons are from the Palestinian [PA] Security Forces – in other words, the PA’s soldiers”

• PMW: With Fatah and the PA Security Forces so deeply involved in terror in the West Bank, the British and American suggestion of empowering them to rule Gaza after Israel has destroyed the terror infrastructures is inconceivable to Israelis. The military force that rules Gaza after the war cannot be fundamentally involved in terror, or else the entire costly operation to destroy the terror infrastructure will have been in vain.

Introduction
As Israel's War against Hamas in the Gaza Strip progresses, concerned countries are now discussing who should rule Gaza after Hamas is destroyed. The US, the UK, and several other European countries have suggested that the reins of the Gaza Strip should be handed over to the Palestinian Authority and its Security Forces, under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party. This proposal assumes that the PA and its Security Forces are a moderating factor and work to prevent terror.

To challenge this myth, PMW decided to write this report documenting that the PA Security Forces are not only deeply involved in terror but that the PA and Fatah brag about it. This report was presented in the last few weeks to members of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee (the Judea and Samaria subcommittee) of the Knesset and in the British House of Lords to MPs and Lords. 

The report exposes the PA Security Forces' involvement in terror in recent years, and documents that far worse than being ineffectual, the PA’s security services have been playing a very active role in terror against Israelis. Both the PA and Fatah not only admit this terror role but regularly and proudly publicize explicit proof of it.

The Report:

On Jan. 17, 2024, the internationally designated terror organization the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Fatah’s military wing, published this poster honoring 5 killed terrorists. One of them is defined as follows:

“Captain Abdallah Abu Shalal, member of the PA General Intelligence,” “Commander Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades”

 [Fatah-run Awdah TV journalist Anas Hoshia, Telegram, Jan. 17, 2024]

The Israeli army announced that Abu Shalal was a senior terrorist:

“The Israeli army announced that… a cell of terrorists was on its way to committing an attack, which was led by Abdallah Abu Shalal, head of the terror infrastructure in the [Balata refugee] camp – who was considered one of the central terror leaders in Judea and Samaria (i.e., the West Bank).”

                                              [ynet, Israeli news website, Jan. 17, 2024]

A second terrorist pictured in the poster was listed as “Captain Saif Al-Najmi, also a member of the Palestinian [Authority] National Security Forces.”

To read or download in PDF the full report documenting the PA Security Forces' involvement in terror, click here.