A recent report published by Palestinian Media Watch shows how much the Palestinian Authority’s Security Forces are involved in terrorism.
By Rachel Avraham
According to a recent report in Arutz Sheva, seventeen countries have signed a statement calling upon Hamas to disarm and resign from governing Gaza. Among the nations that signed the statement are Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Canada, Great Britain and France. The declaration has also received the support of the European Union and the Arab League.
The declaration states: “In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called the statement “historic.” According to Arutz Sheva, the text of the statement was agreed on at the United Nations conference being held this week calling for a Palestinian state. However, would handing over Gaza to the Palestinian Authority be a good solution from an Israeli security perspective? Palestinian Media Watch recently released a research report titled “Terrorists in uniform,” which highlights how many members of the Palestinian Authority’s Security Forces, whom Israel has relied upon to fight terror, actually moonlight as terrorists.
According to the report, “Senior officers in the PASF simultaneously have senior roles in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the internationally designated terror organization that serves as Fatah’s terror wing. Moreover, when these terrorists are killed, they are honored by the PA with military funerals, and when convicted terrorists are released from prison, they are welcomed back in the PASF as heroes. In both 2024 and 2025, the head of PASF General Intelligence Maj. Gen. Majed Faraj gave special cash grants to families of PASF officers imprisoned for terror offenses. Both the PA and Fatah openly and proudly showcase the terror activities of the PASF members, glorifying these fundamentally conflicting roles with praise: “By day [PA] Security Forces, by night self-sacrificing fighters (i.e., terrorists).” [Official Fatah Facebook page, May 25, 2022].”
The current spokesperson for the PASF wrote an article in 2023 lauding the PASF, not because it fought terror but because it fought Israel: “The Security Forces members today as they always were in the battlefields [against Israel], while many of them are falling as Martyrs and wounded and are filling the Israeli prisons… The highest rate of Martyrs and prisoners is from among the Security Forces members.”
Palestinian Media Watch declared, “If the force ruling Gaza after the war is made up of PASF terrorists and terror supporters who take pride in fighting Israel, they will certainly try to rebuild Palestinian terror infrastructures in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s war to destroy Hamas and the horrific loss of life will have been in vain. The documentation in this report of the deep terror involvement of Fatah and the PASF makes the idea of empowering them in Gaza both inconceivable and dangerous. Both the PA and its security forces must be invalidated as options for ruling Gaza.”
Indeed, anyone who reads the 29-page report published by Palestinian Media Watch will be flabbergasted to discover not only how many members of the Palestinian Security Forces are involved in waging terror attacks against Israelis, but how the Fatah leadership is proud of their terrorist activities and rewards members of the Palestinian Authority’s Security Forces who moonlight as terrorists as an addition to their day jobs. In the eyes of the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian terrorists who die while killing Israelis are shahids, martyrs and their families deserve to be rewarded, especially if the terrorist also had a day job at the Palestinian Authority’s Security Forces.
According to the Al Hayat Al Jadida newspaper, ““The [PA] General Intelligence Forces in the Jenin district gave grants to families of Martyrs and prisoners from among the Forces’ members in the district. A delegation of the Forces gave the grant to 28 families of Martyrs and 10 families of prisoners who belong to the General Intelligence… on the orders of the director of the Forces, Maj. Gen. Majed Faraj.”
When one’s family gets financial rewards for terror activities, it does nothing but encourage other members of the Palestinian Security Forces to moonlight as terrorists. The recent Gush Etzion terror attack, where two members of the Palestinian Authority’s police carried out a combined shooting and stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion junction, murdering 22-year-old Israeli Shalev Zevuloni, is just one of many examples where members of the Palestinian Authority’s Security Forces murdered Israelis. The Palestinian Media Watch report is full of many more such examples. Indeed, Israelis should remember that during the Second Intifada and the Knife Intifada, Fatah’s armed wing the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade was just as active in killing Israelis as Hamas was.
While Fatah may be a more secular movement than Hamas and their leadership generally adorns business suites rather than jihadist beards, this does not mean that the Palestinian Authority is a better solution for the people of Gaza than Hamas from an Israeli security point of view. After all, in the eyes of Fatah, the massacres, mass rapes, mutilations and burnings that took place on October 7th are “legitimate resistance.” The only thing that is not legitimate in their eyes is that the massacre resulted in heavy Israeli retaliation, which destroyed Gaza.
Fatah believes only because Hamas miscalculated the Israeli retaliation did they error on October 7th. This means that if ever the Palestinians were to become stronger relative to Israel, Fatah would support waging October 7th style terror attacks against Israelis. This is because the moral compass of Fatah is not better than that of Hamas. Like Hamas, they don’t have sympathy for the Bibas children and all of the other 1,200 slain Israelis, nor the 251 that were abducted.
The only thing that makes Fatah better than Hamas is that they are more pragmatic and in this way, they are smarter than Hamas. Thus, as long as they remain weak, they will wage mainly a diplomatic intifada instead of a physical one. However, at the first available opportunity, they will wage terror attacks against Israelis and won’t treat us more humanely than Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad did. For this reason, it is forbidden for Israel to hand over Gaza to the Palestinian Authority.
There are many ways that Israel can solve the Gaza crisis. It is possible to hand over power to the clans and create an emirate in Gaza, similar to the Hebron Emirate idea, like Dr. Mordechai Kedar supports. It is possible to create a civil administration under the control of Israel and after five years of educating the population for peace, holding democratic elections that exclude Fatah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terror groups from running, thus giving the opportunity for new, more moderate voices to emerge and take over.
It is also possible for Israel to hand over Gaza to President Donald Trump as a gift and let the Americans do whatever they like with the coastal strip. Maybe Trump will be successful and rebuild Gaza as America’s 51st state. Maybe he will understand quickly that he bit off more than he could chew and that he made a mistake. After all, it is for good reason that when the peace agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt, the Egyptians wanted the Sinai back, but not Gaza. Either way, at that point, Gaza will not be our problem anymore. There are many ideas that are floating around about what should be done with Gaza after the war is over. However, handing over the coastal strip to the Palestinian Authority is not a solution that the State of Israel can permit to happen.
Photo from Palestinian Media Watch: https://palwatch.org/page/37213#terrorists-in-uniform
