Radhi Assida, head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) police force, said at a Berlin conference that he has drafted terrorists into the security forces in order to "neutralize" them. He told Reuters News Agency the terrorists were people who had "lost their way."
Assida claimed that his 220-man force for the most part has disbanded Muslim terrorists groups. Israel has agreed to the deployment of American-trained armed policemen in Shechem and Jenin, which are considered major terrorist hubs. Israeli military officials have commented that the PA police do not try to confront terrorists and that they are able to function only because the IDF carries out counterterrorist operations at night, when the police are not on duty.