Israel: PA has allowed Iran to gain a West Bank foothold

The Palestinian Authority has allowed Iran to gain a foothold in the West Bank and has supported its terror activity there, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN in New York, Gilad Erdan, warned in advance of a closed-door UNSC meeting on Friday about the IDF’s Jenin campaign.

“Not only does the Palestinian Authority take no action against terror, it also allows the emergence of Iranian terror strongholds in areas such as Jenin and Nablus,” Erdan said.

The United Arab Emirates along with France, China and Brazil had called for the meeting after the IDF conducted a two-day military campaign in Jenin, in which it said that 12 Palestinian militants were killed and terror infrastructure was destroyed. 

The UN has calculated that some 3,500 Palestinians were displaced in that campaign and that homes and shops were destroyed.

“Schools and hospitals were damaged.  Water and electricity networks were disrupted.  And people in need were prevented from accessing essential care and relief,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters at the UN in New York on Thursday.  

Palestinian terrorism lead to Jenin violence

He called on Israel to “exercise restraint" and to only use “proportional force.”

Erdan, in a letter he wrote to the UNSC prior to its meeting, reminded the 15-member council that Israel has been in the midst of a wave of terror, including three attacks in the last month. 

This wave was “perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists affiliated with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, with the guiding and financing of Iran, alongside the encouragement of the Palestinian Authority.”

He explained that “over the past year, 52 Israelis were murdered by Palestinian terrorists, many of which were carried out from or within the Jenin area. 

“Last week, on 26 June, 2023, two rockets were fired from Jenin toward Israel and Israel has also faced the threat of recent mortar attacks from the area,” he explained.

During the Jenin military campaign, which Israel has called Operation Home and Garden, the IDF located munitions factories and even guidebooks that spoke of how to produce explosives. Erdan explained.

The IDF also discovered tunnels, including one that ran underneath the Al-Ansar Mosque, Erdan said, adding that two entry shafts to the tunnels were inside the mosque itself.

“Years of PA incitement and the inaction of the international community have fueled the Palestinian culture of hate, leading to this volatile point,” he said.

The closed-door meeting is the second one the UNSC has held about Israel in the last few weeks. On June 22nd it met to discuss accelerated Israeli West Bank settlement activity.