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Palestinian Analyst: PA Security Forces Will Join Upcoming Terror Campaigns as They Have in the Past
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas visiting the West Bank city of Jenin. Photo: Reuters/Mohamad Torokman
The Palestinian Authority (PA)’s security services, which are funded and trained by the US, have played an active role in terrorism in the past.
Moreover, their current role in terror is “an important indication about the possibility that this group will participate [in the fighting] if a confrontation will develop in the West Bank.”
This assessment, reinforcing Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)’s repeated recent warnings, comes from Palestinian analyst Akram Al-Natsheh. He recognizes that just as the PA Security Forces were very active in terror during the five-year-long terror-intifada [2000-2005], and recently during the Nablus terror wave [2022-2023], they will continue to perpetrate terror in West Bank fighting in the future:
The participation of former or present Security [Forces] members [in operations] is no longer unusual … Recently, we have seen the participation of security members in operations … They provide an important indication about the possibility that this group will participate [in the fighting] if a confrontation will develop in the West Bank, like in the Al-Aqsa Intifada [i.e., PA terror campaign 2000-2005, more than 1,100 Israelis murdered] or like what we saw with armed groups such as the Lion’s Den in Nablus [i.e., independent terror cell], which relied on the Palestinian Security Forces members who resigned from their positions.” [emphasis added]
[Al Jazeera website, Palestinian publicist and political commentator Akram Al-Natsheh, March 22, 2024]
Fatah, which rules the PA, loves to boast about how many of its members are involved in terror. In January, an official Fatah spokesman said:
Today we are speaking about nearly 8,000 prisoners inside the occupation’s [i.e., Israel’s] prisons. More than half of the prisoners’ movement is from Fatah, and the remaining less than half are from the rest of the factions together.
This shows that Fatah still adheres to the benefit of the struggle, regardless of what will be. It has carried the flag of armed struggle, it carried the flag of popular resistance in the popular [first] Stone Intifada [i.e., Palestinian terror wave, approximately 200 Israelis murdered, 1987-1993], it returned to armed resistance in the Al-Aqsa Intifada, and today it is in favor of popular resistance [i.e., Palestinian term, includes use of violence and terror], and these strategies change and replace each other at every stage, but Fatah has not abandoned any one of its options. [emphasis added]
[Official Fatah Spokesman Abd Al-Fattah Doleh, Falestinona, YouTube channel, Jan. 1, 2024]
PMW, in its report Terrorists in Uniform, has documented this active role in terror by the PA. For example, Palestinian statistics themselves demonstrate that Fatah and the PA Security Forces have been playing a lead role in the recent terror wave against Israelis:
Director of Palestinian Center for Strategic Studies Muhammad Al-Masri: “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 … The ones who are being pursued in the streets, arrested, and imprisoned are the Palestinian Security Forces officers.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, June 14, 2023]
Fatah has broadcasted similar statistics on its TV channel:
Fatah-run Awdah TV host: “More than two thirds of the Martyrs in the West Bank over [the last] year-and-a-half belong to the Fatah Movement and the PA … 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.” [emphasis added]
[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, May 27, 2023]
The PA is controlled by Fatah and by its own admission is synonymous with terror in the West Bank. Nevertheless, the US, UK, and many others in the West believe that the PA and its Security Forces are some sort of moderate element that work to prevent terror and thus should be the ones to receive control over the Gaza Strip on “the day after” the war.
Such beliefs could not be more mistaken. The PA and Fatah are deeply involved in terror and brag about it. Such an organization has no place taking the reins of power in Gaza.
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is PMW’s Founder and Director. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
The post Palestinian Analyst: PA Security Forces Will Join Upcoming Terror Campaigns as They Have in the Past first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.