Growing involvement of PA security men in terror activity worries IDF

By YAAKOV KATZ
The IDF is keeping a close eye on two Fatah men currently locked up in a Hebron jail after a Palestinian Authority court sentenced them to 15 years in prison on Tuesday for the murder of two off-duty IDF soldiers. A PA security court found the two - Ammar Taha, 26, and Ali Dandis, 24 - guilty of murder, based on their confessions. Taha served as a policeman in the Palestinian security forces, while Dandis was a clerk in the Islamic religious (sharia) court in Hebron. Immediately after the attack, Taha and Dandis sought refuge with the PA's General Intelligence Force in Hebron out of fear of being caught by the IDF. For the IDF, the incident demonstrated the growing involvement of Palestinian security officers in terror activity, as well as a new tactic among terrorists to seek refuge within PA institutions. The IDF currently does not have permission from the political echelon to capture the terrorists and bring them to Israel to stand trial. If the prisoners are allowed out, however, the IDF is ready to capture them immediately. In addition, the IDF revealed on Wednesday that forces had recently uncovered two terror cells plotting to target groups of young right-wing activists who regularly march to the evacuated settlement of Homesh in northern Samaria.