Prime Minister Yair Lapid said that the fact that one of the terrorists who killed an IDF officer on Wednesday was a member of the Palestinian Authority’s intelligence forces is an “escalation.” In a veiled condemnation of the PA’s failure to enforce security in terror-plagued areas, Lapid said: “We won’t hesitate to act wherever the Authority doesn’t maintain order. Israel will strike anyone striving to harm it. ” PA officials told Israel recently that they cannot assist Israel in efforts to decrease terrorism in Yehudah and Shomron ahead of and during the Chagim, Kan News reported on Wednesday. IDF and Shin Bet officials held a meeting last week with PA officials during which they requested that the two sides increase security coordination in light of the surge in terror. However, PA intelligence chief Majed Farag and PLO Secretary General Hussein al-Sheikh refused, claiming that the IDF’s nightly counterterrorism operations in Yehudah and Shomron made it impossible to do so. “We can’t operate effectively when you enter Palestinian cities every night and arrest and kill residents. Your actions weaken us,” they said. Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday ordered the closure of the Jalamah and Salem checkpoints and the halt of entry permits to residents of Kafr Dan, the hometown of the two terrorists who murdered the IDF officer. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

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