On November 25th, Israeli police arrested 32 individuals suspected of serving in the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security services.
According to the police statement, the suspects were Israeli residents and some of them were receiving state social benefits, while also serving in the PA’s armed forces. The statement claimed that their activities were illegal under the 1994 Gaza-Jericho agreement, a follow-up treaty to the Oslo Accords.
The arrests came as a result of a covert investigation into the PA’s operation inside Israel, according to the police.
During searches of the suspects’ homes, police said officers uncovered tens of thousands of shekels in cash, weapons, ammunition, uniforms and various PA security forces documents.
כוחות של משטרת ישראל עצרו הלילה 32 תושבי מזרח ירושלים המחזיקים בתעודות זהות כחולות, החשודים בעבירות של שירות במנגנוני הביטחון הפלסטינים. כל העצורים הועברו לחקירה. בחיפוש בבתי החשודים נתפס ציוד צבאי, תחמושת, מדים ותעודות מינוי והסמכה של המשטרה הפלסטינית pic.twitter.com/aGdiI5eZ2F
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) November 26, 2018
Police said the suspects were engaged in activities that “directly affect the personal safety of Israeli Arabs.” They were taken in for a hearing and were expected to be brought before a judge for a remand hearing on November 26th.
“The police will take a hard and uncompromising hand against Israeli residents and civilians acting in the name of the Palestinian Authority and other terrorist organizations in violence of the law, while violating the sovereignty, governance and security of the citizens of the State of Israel,” Israel Police said in a statement.
The arrest came one day after police arrested the Palestinian Authority governor of Jerusalem for the second time in two months. He was reportedly arrested as a result of a PA investigation into an East Jerusalem land sale.
Adnan Ghaith was arrested in Jerusalem’s Beit Hanina neighborhood overnight on November 24th. Reports in Hebrew-language media said that Israeli authorities are investigating Ghaith after the PA arrested a man last month accused of selling property in East Jerusalem to a Jewish buyer.
