Just hours before the handover began, Israeli security forces arrested four Islamic Jihad terrorists in the same area Monday morning.
Arab terrorists fired a Kassam rocket from Gaza toward the town of Sderot in the western Negev Sunday night, but no one was hurt. Arab terrorists in the Shomron also targeted Israeli vehicles with firebombs Sunday night. The vehicles were damaged, but inhabitants were uninjured and continued on their way to the nearby Jewish community of Elon Moreh, near Shechem.
Despite the attacks and arrests, the IDF handed over control of the Tul Karem region to the Palestinian Authority (PA) security control Tuesday evening.
The handover was delayed due to a PA demand to receive villages surrounding Tul Karem, previously considered under full PA control (Area A). The IDF says the terrorists who attacked the Stage club in Tel Aviv on February 25, murdering five Israelis, were based there.
The PA announced that a limit of one weapon per person was being imposed. This was viewed as a move intended to deflect 12-year-old demands of the PA to collect weapons from terror group members. It was not specified how this new rule would be enforced.
Outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon told a Haifa audience last week that "until Abu Mazen collects all the weapons, this conflict will not end." Yaalon warned, "Camouflaged by [the agreement to hand over areas of land to PA control], the terrorists are arming, manufacturing explosives and shoring up their forces."
Arab terrorists fired a Kassam rocket from Gaza toward the town of Sderot in the western Negev Sunday night, but no one was hurt. Arab terrorists in the Shomron also targeted Israeli vehicles with firebombs Sunday night. The vehicles were damaged, but inhabitants were uninjured and continued on their way to the nearby Jewish community of Elon Moreh, near Shechem.
Despite the attacks and arrests, the IDF handed over control of the Tul Karem region to the Palestinian Authority (PA) security control Tuesday evening.
The handover was delayed due to a PA demand to receive villages surrounding Tul Karem, previously considered under full PA control (Area A). The IDF says the terrorists who attacked the Stage club in Tel Aviv on February 25, murdering five Israelis, were based there.
The PA announced that a limit of one weapon per person was being imposed. This was viewed as a move intended to deflect 12-year-old demands of the PA to collect weapons from terror group members. It was not specified how this new rule would be enforced.
Outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon told a Haifa audience last week that "until Abu Mazen collects all the weapons, this conflict will not end." Yaalon warned, "Camouflaged by [the agreement to hand over areas of land to PA control], the terrorists are arming, manufacturing explosives and shoring up their forces."