Scene of terrorist attack near Beit El
Scene of terrorist attack near Beit ElRefael Levi

Palestinian Authority security forces may have attempted to prevent Monday’s terrorist attack by one of its officers on Israeli soldiers at near the town of Beit El, JTA reported Tuesday.

The father of the terrorist, 25-year-old Muhammad Turkman, told the Palestinian Arab news website Quds Net that Palestinian forces raided the family home near Jenin hours before Monday afternoon's attack.

Turkman, a member of a special forces unit of the Palestinian Authority police force, opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle at soldiers at the checkpoint, injuring three. He was shot and killed by other Israeli soldiers on the scene.

An unnamed senior Palestinian Authority security official told Kol Yisrael radio on Tuesday that Turkman was a guard at the Palestinian parliament in Ramallah, and used his service rifle to perpetrate the attack. He left at the end of his shift without asking permission to take his rifle.

Turkman's father, Abdul Khaleq, told Quds Net that he was proud of his son, as was the rest of the family.

While the PA security forces apparently tried to prevent the attack, PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party praised Turkman for his actions, glorifying him as a “heroic martyr”.

Similarly, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri praised the attack as “heroic” and added that it sent “a strong message in the face of Israeli crimes”.

Abu Zuhri also called for “more involvement from Palestinian security officers in the Palestinian intifada”.

The attack was not the first time that a member of the PA security forces has carried out a terrorist attack against Israelis.

One of these attacks came in February when a PA officer shot three IDF soldiers, wounding two of them seriously and one lightly before being shot dead by other soldiers.

The PA and its security forces were created in the 1994 Oslo Accords in which Israel supplied them with weapons. The Accords led to the 2000 Second Intifada, in which over 1,000 Israelis were murdered. PA officials later bragged that 70% of the attacks were conducted by PA security force members.