Palestinian Authority security forces have been deployed en masse and ordered to work tirelessly to prevent planned large-scale Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.

But the sudden overriding focus on security has little to do with protecting Israelis.

A senior Palestinian security officer told Israel's Ynet news portal that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas knows that if Hamas is successful in carrying out a “mega-attack” in the coming months, it will prevent him from extracting substantial concessions from Israel at an upcoming US-hosted peace summit.

“There's a race against time going on between us and Hamas on who would succeed first: they in carrying out the bombing, or us in foiling it,” the officer said.