Keep funding Palestinian security forces, Israel says

ISRAELI AND Palestinian officials say their security coordination in the West Bank will be unaffected despite the US decision to end all aid — including security assistance — to the Palestinian Authority.

But concerns remain that without American funds, thought to be worth $61 million (£46.8 million), the Palestinian security forces will prove less effective.

They are currently working with Israel to block Hamas and other Palestinian groups from expanding their operations in the West Bank.

Legislation passed last year in Congress would make the Palestinian Authority liable to massive lawsuits in the US for the payments it makes to prisoners and their families who were jailed in Israel for terror charges.

It prompted the PA to announce it will not stop paying so-called “Martyrs’ Fund” payments and would therefore relinquish all US aid from January 31, when the law came in to affect.

While the Senate’s move was largely the result of lobbying by pro-Israel groups, Israeli diplomats have been discreetly looking for ways to work around it in order to retain Palestinian security funding.

“The Palestinian Authority doesn’t coordinate its security with Israel because they want to do us any favours,” one Israeli military official said.

“It’s in [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas and Fatah’s interest to work with us because we share an interest in keeping Hamas out of the West Bank.

“Abbas knows that without coordination and assistance from Israel, he could lose control to Hamas, just as Fatah did in Gaza.

“The lack of US assistance hampers the joint efforts but it won’t end coordination.”