PA Security Forces in Terror Attacks: IDF Concealment Exposed

Amit Assa, a former senior official in Israel's Shin Bet security service, has accused Israeli defense establishments of deliberately concealing the participation of Palestinian Authority security personnel in terrorist attacks against Israelis.

In an interview on the "Night Diary" program with Ziv Maor and Moriah Michaeli on Galei Israel radio, Assa warned that the security situation in the West Bank is rapidly deteriorating. "The scenario of the Palestinian Authority flipping is happening before our eyes," he said. "We're seeing members of their security apparatus joining attacks alongside terrorist operatives."

According to Assa, Israeli military and intelligence spokesmen made a systematic choice over an extended period not to inform the public about this phenomenon. "For a long time, IDF and Shin Bet spokesmen were deliberately hiding this matter from the public," he stated. "They would announce that a terror attack had been carried out, some were Hamas members and other terror activists, of course, but they never explicitly stated that these were members of the PA security forces who were partners there."

Assa described how information about security personnel involvement eventually reached the public through indirect channels. "We would discover this from the Arab media," he explained. "When there was some mourning tent where members of the security apparatus visited to offer condolences, which made it clear that the terrorist who acted was from within their forces. This is the great danger."

The Palestinian Authority maintains several security services in areas under its control in the West Bank, which have historically coordinated with Israeli forces on security matters. Assa's comments suggest this cooperation framework is breaking down as PA personnel themselves become involved in attacks.