The Palestinian Authority (PA)

News of the Israeli-Palestinian Confrontation (December 1-15, 2005)

During the first half of December Palestinian terrorism escalated. The main event was the suicide bombing attack in Netanya carried out by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the terrorist organization which, sponsored by Iran and Syria, has sought more than any other to sabotage the lull. There was also a sharp increase in the launching
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Hezbollah in Lebanon continues sending Fatah/Tanzim operatives in the West Bank on terrorist missions by means of a link in the Gaza Strip which transmits funds and instructions.

On October 16, 2005, Israeli security forces detained Majdi Kamal ‘Abd al-Jabbar ‘Amer, from the village of Qalil, near Nablus. During interrogation he stated that he took orders from Hezbollah in Lebanon through a kind of front-line headquarters in the Gaza Strip, which liaised between Hezbollah handlers in Lebanon and terrorist-operatives in the West Bank
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The Palestinian-Israel Conflict — Update October 1-16, 2005

The most jarring events were the two terrorist shooting attacks at the Gush Etzion and Eli junctions, which left three Israelis dead and four wounded.
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Five years of violent confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians

September 29, 2005 marked five years since the outbreak of the current violent confrontation with the Palestinians. Throughout the course of the confrontation, 26,159 terrorist attacks have been perpetrated against Israeli targets, leaving 1,060 Israelis dead and 6,089 wounded.
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The Palestinian Authority (PA)

The Palestinian Authority is a semi-autonomous entity which controls most of the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria. The Palestinian Authority was established in 1994 by virtue of agreements signed as part of the Oslo process between Israel and the PLO. Formally, the Palestinian Authority also controls the Gaza Strip, but in reality it lost control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 when Hamas violently took control. Since Yasser Arafat’s death, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has headed the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinian Authority’s status under Yasser Arafat was severely damaged by the Palestinian terrorist campaign (the Al-Aqsa, or Second Intifada, 2000 until 2005). Israel asserted that it failed to function since it did not fight against terrorism and even played an active role in organizing and funding terrorist attacks against Israelis. Israel ended cooperation with it and most Palestinian Authority activities came to a standstill.

After the end of the Second Intifada, Arafat’s death and his succession by Abu Mazen, Israel changed its policy towards the Palestinian Authority and the relations between them improved. Today, the Palestinian Authority controls area A in Judea and Samaria and enjoys partial cooperation with Israel, mainly in terms of security and administration. In the territories under its control, the Palestinian Authority operates through its security services, in coordination with Israel, to maintain internal order and prevent terrorist attacks. At the same time, the Palestinian Authority supports “popular resistance” (popular terrorism), providing political and even practical backing to acts of violence taking place as part of this kind of terrorism.

Many countries around the world give the Palestinian Authority some sort of recognition as a political entity, although most of them do not recognize it as a sovereign state. Some of them formalized their diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority and promoted their representatives to the status of ambassadors. On November 29, 2012, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 67/19 by a large majority. The resolution granted the Palestinian Authority a status of an observer state, which is not a full member.