The Palestinian Authority security apparatus on Tuesday morning prevented a terrorist plot to blow up pipe bombs at the Gilboa Crossing (Jalame), which connects Israel and Jenin, Ynet reported, citing Palestinian sources. Those sources say that PA police picked up two 15-year-old boys from Yamoun village, near Jenin, who were carrying pipe bombs and knives. The two boys were caught a few dozen yards from the Israeli side of the crossing. They planned to carry out a combined attack at the crossing, using the bombs and the knives.
This is the fourth case in which Palestinian Authority police have thwarted attack attempts at the Gilboa Crossing. The force’s unusually heavy deployment in the area follows a succession of four stabbing attempts at the crossing by Arab youths from Kabatia — all of whom were shot and killed on the spot.
The Tuesday attempted attack took place during a week-long teachers’ strike which has shut down public schools in the PA and left students with little to keep them occupied, other than television and the social networks, which in the PA are both sources of incitement to kill Jews.
The PA police success in preventing the attack defies several statements by senior PA officials who have threatened to abandon the Oslo peace accords, including the part about cooperation with the IDF on security issues.