Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister Binyamin NetanyahuYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Israel is not planning to approve arms for the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security forces or any other “gesture” to the PA, including the release of terrorists, sources close to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Arutz Sheva on Wednesday evening.

The clarification came following reports that the IDF had issued a recommendation to the political echelon that the PA security forces be given armored vehicles, weapons and ammunition so as to let them enter terror hotbeds that they are more familiar with than the IDF.

The sources told Arutz Sheva that the security cabinet convened for a discussion on Wednesday evening in which the current wave of terrorism was discussed, but that no practical decisions had been made.

The earlier report said that the IDF had made a series of recommendations to the political leadership, including enlarging the amount of work permits given to Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria - particularly for young Arabs - allowing them to enter sovereign Israeli territory.

It also called to enlarge the number of Arab building permits in Area C of Judea and Samaria, which is under full Israeli control according to the Oslo Accords, and to release Arab prisoners, potentially including seasoned terrorists.

The recommendation of weapons to the PA security forces is highly surprising, particularly given that the establishment of the PA and the influx of weapons to its security forces in the 1994 Oslo Accords fueled the murder of over a thousand Jews in the 2000 Second Intifada terror war; a PA official in 2013 bragged that 70% of the terrorists behind attacks in the first year of the terror war were PA security officers armed by Israel.

PA security forces in 2011 murdered the nephew of a Likud minister at Joseph's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus), and just last month allowed the holy site to be burned and desecrated, several days before beating Jewish worshipers.

Even before the Second Intifada, PA security forces back in September 1996 shot 15 Israelis to death, and recruited terrorists to its ranks. The PA has recently been actively inciting the ongoing attacks, making the prospect of relying on it to end the terror questionable at best.