The Palestinian Authority is reportedly holding at least 40 people in prison on suspicion of having gone to Syria to join al-Qaeda-linked rebel factions there. The 40 were all arrested upon returning from abroad.
Though the PA’s ruling Fatah faction initially tried to remain neutral in the Syrian Civil War, in part because the Assad government has historic ties with their rivals in Hamas and the PFLP, the current drive seems to center around fears of a Salafist surge in the West Bank itself.
Having fighters going abroad to join the Jabhat al-Nusra and al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) is one part of this surge, but the PA has also arrested dozens of others for joining a domestic Salafist jihadi network within the West Bank itself.
A particular sore spot in the West Bank are the refugee camps, where overcrowding and poverty are the rule of the day, and the PA rarely does anything except for launch the occasional arrest raid. Those camps and their desperate occupants have proven fertile recruiting ground for al-Qaeda on other such factions.
40 some Palestinian fighters left and returned without Israel’s knowledge is bs. Israel has the WB locked down tighter than a drum and no part of it is outside Israel’s reach. Gaza has been under Israel siege since 2005 and just being within shooting range of the fence is a guaranteed death sentence.
What is closer to the truth is that these fighters, CIA trained and Israel supported rebels are part and parcel of Israel contribution to the 3Y war on Assad regime. Israel’s 'dirty dozens' recruited from some 4000 Palestinian, esconded in Israel’s Abu Ghraib. On returning from their failed mission in Syria, their Shin Bet handlers have handed them over to PLO, why? IMHO if not to foment another coup on Gaza, since the last one in 2007 failed to rout Hamas.
Sorry for clicking the wrong thumb–a one-thumb-in-a-hundred clicking error.