The Palestinian Authority's (PA) security services have been destroying classified files in fear of IDF raids following Israel's annexation of parts of the West Bank, AFP reported Tuesday.
According to a source cited by AFP, the services were "ordered to destroy confidential documents in our possession and have obeyed this order." The source added the directives came from "high up."
Some of the files were shredded after being scanned and transferred onto flash drives which were later hidden by the services, other sources claimed.
The services reportedly began the destruction of the documents following Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' May announcement on the authority no longer being bound by agreements it signed with Israel and the US, including the Oslo Accords, and the subsequent termination of the security coordination with the IDF.
A source cited by the agency reported the decision to shred the sensitive files came amid growing fears that following an annexation, Israel's security forces may carry out raids on Palestinian security offices, similar to those that took place during the Second Intifada.
With US President Donald Trump's administration giving Israel the go-ahead to annex 30% of the West Bank, the state is expected to apply its sovereignty on the Jordan Valley July 1. Following the annexation, Israeli civil law will be applied to the area currently controlled by the IDF's Civil Administration.
Some 58 thousand Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley will not receive an Israeli citizenship but will remain in PA enclaves under Israeli military control, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a late-May interview with Israel Hayom.
"They will remain as Palestinian enclaves," the prime minister said, adding that besides Jericho, home to around 20,000 Palestinians, "there is a cluster or two. You do not need to apply sovereignty over them." According to Netanyahu, "they will remain Palestinian subjects, if you will. But the security control applies to that, too."
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh reportedly said there will be a "hot summer" in Israel and the Palestinian territories if an annexation takes place. Last week, the official said the PA would unilaterally declare a Palestinian state in West Bank and the Gaza Strip based on the 1949 armistice lines, also known as the Green Line.
In late May, PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Saeb Erekat told NGO Peace Now an Israeli annexation would lead to the collapse of the PA. The IDF also began preparing for the possibility of a third Palestinian uprising in light of the annexation.