Reports yesterday said Israel’s security establishment has agreed for the Palestinian Authority to purchase helicopters to transport its senior officials. The plan is for two helicopters to be acquired by the PA and stationed in Jordan for use by senior Palestinian officials when needed. The PA would be required to ask Israel for authorization to travel through Israeli airspace, including over the West Bank. The purchase is to be financed by unnamed Gulf countries.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas already uses a helicopter provided by Jordan, mostly to fly to Amman. Abbas has not traveled to Gaza for several years now.

It is the first time since 2001 that Israel has agreed for the PA to acquire helicopters. After the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel authorized Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to own three Soviet-made Mil Mi-8 helicopters. In 2001, about a year after the outbreak of the second intifada, Israeli forces hit the Gaza helipad, destroying two of the Palestinian aircraft that were parked there, following intelligence assessments that they were used to shuttle weapons and wanted Palestinians between the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan.

The current plan seeks to strengthen Abbas' status, as European and American officials have pressured Israel to do over the past few months. Apart from the helicopters, the PA had asked Israel to release the bodies of Fatah members it is holding as well as Fatah activists in jail not for killing Israelis, but for other offenses. Israel is demanding that the PA do more about the outbreak of violence in the West Bank, particularly terror cells in Nablus and in Jenin. No agreement has been reached so far on these issues.