Jerusalem: The 'Palestine Papers' leaked by Qatar based al-Jazeera network has exposed extensive cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s security services, including a planned assassination of a commander of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
In a report on its English-language website titled, 'The al- Madhoun assassination', the network alleges that PA has 'shown operational willingness to co-operate with Israel to kill its own people'.
The allegation is said to be based on apparent handwritten notes of a meeting between Israel's then defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, and Palestinian minister of interior, Nasser Youssef.
At a meeting in 2005 in Tel Aviv, Mofaz is quoted as asking Youssef why the PA doesn't kill Hassan al-Madhoun, affiliated with Fatah's al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades and someone Israel accused of being behind the deadly attacks at Ashdod Port and the Karni crossing.
The PA interior minister reportedly responds saying that instructions were given to the head of Fatah’s Preventive Security Organisation in Gaza, and 'we'll see'.
"He is not Hamas and you can kill him," Mofaz is quoted as saying, to which Youssef replies, "We work, the country is not easy, our capabilities are limited, and you haven't offered anything."
Madhoun was killed by a missile fired by an Israeli helicopter less than a month after the meeting, the pan-Arab network said.
In one of the security coordination meetings between Israel and the PA described in the documents released by al-Jazeera, chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, describes the PA as the only Arab regime which exerts control over the speeches made in mosques and Muslim charitable organisations.
Erekat added that the PA was forced to kill their 'own people' in order to prove that it was establishing law and order in territories under its control.
The negotiator was apparently referring to an incident in Qalqilyah in which Palestinian police killed six Hamas members, and in which two police officers were also killed in the firefight.
According to one document released yesterday, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad opposed the opening of Gaza's border crossings, fearing that this would be interpreted as a victory for Islamist Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.