Sources deny reports that the Palestinian Authority received armored vehicles as a gift from the European Union that had arrived via Jordan, causing government sources to issue conflicting reports.
After a mass wave of criticism including Samaria Council head Yossi Dagan calling the armored vehicles transfer a "total abandonment of human life and taking an unacceptable risk both of the lives of IDF soldiers and of the lives of the residents of Judea and Samaria," an anonymous Israeli source was quoted saying the APCs were actually supplied to the PA by the Americans four months ago.
According to these sources, "the matter was approved at the Americans' request by former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and the Prime Minister more than nine months ago, and was provided to the Palestinians by the Americans already four months ago."
All press outlets appear to have lifted the official justification for the transfer from the same government source, that the armored vehicle delivery was in some undefined way "coming on the background of" Israel's withholding tax revenues from the PA to offset terror salaries.
The Americans-as-source version does not mention of the European Union at all, but the Channel 13 News tweet that names the European Union as the source, not the Americans, is still cited, even in articles naming the US as the source:
YNet appears to have retroactively rectified their reporting, as currently the site says "Palestinian Authority security forces received ten armored vehicles from the United States four months ago, but the details are only coming to light now. The vehicles entered the West Bank via the Allenby Crossing from Jordan, with Israel's approval."
The original YNet report, however, also specifically mentioned the European Union.
Only one Israeli newspaper continues at this hour to name the European Union as the source of the armored vehicles to the Palestinian Authority. They quote Har Hevron Regional Council head Yohai Damari saying: “Why do the Palestinians need armored cars? Who exactly is shooting at them? We will pay for this wrong decision with the blood of our residents and soldiers.”
A source claimed to Arutz Sheva that the report the European Union had gifted the vehicles to the PA had been "mistaken". An official denial will not be forthcoming.
In the past, the IDF has justified PA armored vehicles according to Oslo saying PA leadership needed them to protect the government from Arab extremist elements, while at the same time trying to deny the vehicle's existence. The recent announcement that Avigdor Liberman will again receive the Defense portfolio has Yesha leaders worried that once again, a government that would be complicit in their expulsion is about to arise.
The Oslo Accords authorized Palestinian armored vehicles "in the vicinity of the settlements" if "coordinated with the DCO".