Israel linked Mahmoud Abbas’ security services to the killing of two off-duty soldiers.
The Shin Bet intelligence agency announced Tuesday that two members of a cell that gunned down the soldiers as they hiked in the West Bank over the weekend are involved in the Palestinian Authority’s security services.
One of the suspects works for the Palestinian National Security Forces, and the other has connections to the Palestinian Intelligence Service, the Shin Bet said. Both men belong to Abbas’ Fatah faction, which has been embraced internationally since it broke with Hamas over the Islamist group’s Gaza seizure.
The Palestinian Authority, which said it detained the men soon after Friday’s deadly ambush, had no immediate comment on the Shin Bet allegations.
Abbas’ ability to impose order in the West Bank has been under intense scrutiny amid his efforts to restart peace talks with Israel, which has long said that some P.A. police moonlight as terrorists.
