A Palestinian Authority security officer shot and lightly wounded two IDF soldiers who were carrying out counterterrorist operations in Kalkilya, adjacent to Kfar Saba early Thursday morning. The IDF unit returned fire and moderately wounded the PA policeman, the term used by the United States when referring to PA security forces.

The Arab Maan news agency quoted PA sources that the attacker was a PA intelligence officer who allegedly approached the plainclothes soldiers for a routine check. He refused medical aid from the IDF. The Israeli soldiers are in good condition.

PA officials claimed that the incident was a matter of “mistaken identity,” and an IDF spokeswoman told Israel National News, “Mistakes can happen.” Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, head of the Civil Administration, told PA officers he wants a joint probe of the shooting, but the PA has refused.

As part of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1995 between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Israel has allowed the PA to patrol most of Judea and Samaria.

U.S. Lt. Gen Keith Dayton has been training an emerging PA army to fight terror and cooperate with Israel, but most of the counterterrorist operations in Judea and Samaria are carried out by Israeli soldiers.

The U.S. government has spent $161 million the past two years for training PA security forces, including construction of training bases in Jericho and Jenin, which along with Shechem shares the title of the terrorist capitals of Israel. Congress is considering approving another $130 million for further training.

Dayton told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy last week that the money would help reduce the presence of the IDF in Judea and Samaria. The PA, with approval of the Israeli government, has deployed 10American trained battalions in Shechem, Bethlehem, Hevron, Jenin and Ramallah.

Brigadier General Michael Herzog, chief of staff for Defense Minister Ehud Barak, said that although “Dayton is doing a great job,… it’s not that they can assume full security responsibility.” His remarks were quoted by the New York Jewish Week, which also noted that Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum think tank, has termed “Dayton’s Army” as “the stupidest program the U.S. government has ever undertaken.”

He said there is “overwhelming evidence that the great majority of Palestinians are determined to eliminate the Jewish state. So why are we training them?”