Hundreds of Palestinian police officers will be deployed Saturday across the West Bank city of Jenin following an agreement reached between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Some 470 policemen will boost the presence of the Palestinian Authority forces currently securing the area.
The officers will arrive in Jenin from Hebron, Ramallah and Jericho, and will mainly engage in law enforcement.
"We expect them to also fight terror, but our expectations are not too high. Policing and enforcing order are also important missions," a defense official has said.
The deployment will be similar to the police deployment which began in the city of Nablus about a year ago. The officers – members of the various Palestinian security organizations – will be armed, but will not have any security responsibilities and will focus on the public and criminal aspects.
A coordination meeting was held over the past week between Israeli and Palestinian officials, who also discussed the Jenin police deployment. Israel was represented in the meeting by the Civil Administration chief, Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, and the commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, Brigadier-General Noam Tibon.
Defense officials noted Friday that the police activity in Nablus has yielded positive achievements in terms of the coordination with the IDF, including the handling of vehicles stolen from Israel.
The officials added that the Palestinian officers sometimes help seize weapons and transfer them to the Israel Defense Forces.
"Any activity on the part of the Palestinian police officers in terms of thwarting terror will be welcomed," an official said. "However, the IDF will continue to operate in the city and in the region as long as it takes. This is clear to all sides."
Defense establishment officials have stressed that the Israeli interest is to bolster the Palestinian security organizations and provide them with freedom of action. Earlier this month, Israel and the Palestinians agreed that the defense establishment would allow the PA to reopen police stations which had operated in the B areas until the start of the second intifada.
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