In yet another “gesture” to the Palestinian Authority, the PA has been moving caravans from Authority-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria to Gaza, it was revealed Wednesday. The caravan transports followed earlier reports that vehicles with PA license plates have been given permission to enter areas of Israel within the 1949 Armistice lines, a first in 15 years since the outbreak of the last major terror war from the region.
In addition, PA sources said, Israel has allowed large amounts of cement into Gaza - and plans to continue doing so for the next three years. This, despite increasing reports Hamas is using at least some of that cement to rebuild its terror tunnels into Israel.
Permission for the caravan transport was given by General Yoav Mordechai, in charge of security coordination with the PA. In the first stage, four caravans were moved overnight Tuesday from Jericho to Gaza. Because of their size, the transport effort was be coordinated with Israel Police and conducted at night. Portions of several highways in southern Israel were closed while the caravans were being moved. The caravans were examined and let into Gaza on Wednesday morning.
With the successful conclusion of that “mission,” said Mordechai's office, the program is set to continue. Some 100 caravans are slated to be moved.
It was just the latest in what has become a series of “gestures” to the PA. In the past, Israel has prevented the import of concrete into Gaza, because of the likelihood that Hamas, which controls Gaza, would again hijack the building materials meant for civilian use to construct smuggling and terror tunnels into Israel. However, PA sources last week Israel authorized the entry of 175 trucks carrying cement into Gaza, the most building materials allowed in at one time since the conclusion of Operation Protective Edge.
According to the PA sources, Israel is set to allow a similar amount of building material into Gaza at least once a week for the next three years.
Earlier Wednesday, COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) said it had "approved for Palestinian doctors who work shifts and other jobs that require heightened responsiveness in hospitals in Israel to enter Israel with their vehicles. For the first time since 2000, Palestinian vehicles are entering Israel," COGAT said, adding that the move was aimed to "assist doctors in completing their life-saving mission."
Last Thursday, PA Security Forces were deployed for the first time in three areas of Judea and Samaria near eastern Jerusalem, in an effort to target criminals and would-be terrorists in coordination with Israeli security forces, officials on both sides said.mThat came despite a PA threat to end security coordination with Israel, after the Jewish state responded to the PA's unilateral International Criminal Court (ICC) bid to sue Israel for "war crimes" by withholding tax revenues collected for it earlier this year.
In 2000, arch-terrorist and then-PA chairman Yasser Arafat launched the Second Intifada or Oslo War as it alternately come to be known, a campaign of terror attacks targeting Jews in all parts of Israel that inflicted massive casualties.