With eye on Gaza, Palestinian Authority tackles West Bank militants
| JENIN, West Bank; and AMMAN, Jordan
The West Bank-governing Palestinian Authority is taking a stand against a coalition of militants based in the Jenin refugee camp.
The beleaguered PA is staking its legitimacy on a security operation designed to extend its control, jump on a weakened Iranian alliance network, and even prove its ability to take on governance of Gaza.
But will this be the unloved and deeply distrusted authority鈥檚 last stand?
Why We Wrote This
Popular support for the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, has been in steady decline. Now the authority is taking on a major militant stronghold in a bid to burnish its credentials. Yet the high-risk move is further dividing Palestinian society.
As of Thursday, PA security services had the Jenin camp surrounded and besieged for the fourth straight week, part of a long-term security campaign that has led to nearly 250 arrests and the deaths of 15 people, including three militants, six PA officers, a journalist, and a child.
A tense standoff is prevailing in Jenin between PA forces on the perimeter and an unknown number of militants holed up inside the mazelike camp along with the few dozen residents who remain.
Electricity and water have been cut off to the camp since the start of the campaign Dec. 14, and PA snipers perched above buildings monitor its entrance, residents say.
The PA and militants have traded accusations over why the electric company has yet to restore power.
The authority is trumpeting its 鈥減rotect the homeland鈥� campaign as a 鈥渓aw and order鈥� operation against the cross-factional Jenin Brigades, comprising Palestinian Islamic jihad, Hamas, independents, and a splinter faction of Fatah, the party that controls the PA.
The brigades, whose members say they are devoted to 鈥渁rmed resistance,鈥� have orchestrated attacks on Israelis in the West Bank since their formation in 2021. The coalition has faced several Israeli military incursions into the camp in attempts to root it out.
Now the PA, looking to burnish its credentials with the West 鈥� and prevent a pretext for wider destructive Israeli military incursions in the West Bank 鈥� is attempting to root out the brigades for good.
The PA says the militants are Tehran-backed 鈥渙utlaws鈥� and not 鈥渓egitimate resistance fighters.鈥�
West Bank is polarized
The Jenin Brigades and supporters within the camp say the PA campaign seeks to demonstrate to Israel that it has complete control over areas in the West Bank. Hamas, which for years has been operating in refugee camps, warned that the authority was 鈥渃rossing all red lines.鈥�
As part of their operations, the security services say they have confiscated 鈥渓arge numbers of weapons and explosive material,鈥� and accuse the militants of planting explosive devices in the streets and alleyways of the mazelike camp, a car-bombing, and 鈥渟preading chaos.鈥�
Public support for the PA or the militants is divided, pointing to a growing schism within Palestinian society. The West Bank has not been this polarized in nearly two decades.
Jenin residents, weary of years of deadly Israeli incursions, have expressed their desire for a return to normal life. But the PA鈥檚 cutting of electricity and water has increased pressure on camp residents to leave.
Tamam Mer鈥檈i says her bedridden husband requires a constant power supply for his electric bed. When the electricity was cut last month, her family of five, along with her son鈥檚 family, began to feel the strain of the blockade.
鈥淭he cold December weather and near-constant sound of gunfire made it extremely difficult to leave the house to seek supplies,鈥� she says. 鈥淓ventually, we had no choice but to leave the camp, because my husband suffered a heart attack.鈥�
Braving crossfire, the family evacuated her husband on a wheelchair, maneuvering past explosive devices hidden under rubble by militants.
鈥淭he situation is miserable. Not just because of the lack of food, water, and utilities, but because it鈥檚 unbearable to see Palestinians fighting each other,鈥� she says, speaking from Ibn Sina Hospital, where her husband is recovering.
With us or against us
Meanwhile, the PA and President Mahmoud Abbas鈥� Fatah faction are employing with-us-or-against-us rhetoric, likening dissent to 鈥渂etrayal.鈥�
In a rare show of force, Fatah held a military parade in Ramallah last week to celebrate its founding, its fighters firing into the air.
As part of its crackdown on criticisms of the Jenin campaign, the PA last week shut down Al Jazeera鈥檚 offices in Ramallah, banned the Qatar-based network from broadcasting in the West Bank, and ordered four of its websites to be blocked.
To explain the move, after two decades of relying on the network鈥檚 coverage of alleged Israeli violations in the occupied territories, the PA accused Al Jazeera of incitement and sowing division in 鈥渙ur Arab homeland in general and in Palestine in particular.鈥�
Observers say the message is clear: Criticism of the campaign will not be tolerated.
Local nongovernmental organizations, rights groups, and journalists have been largely unable to enter Jenin camp amid the PA鈥檚 intense security measures. Reports from the camp have relied on local journalists and social media posts by residents, one of whom, Shatha al-Sabbagh, was shot dead in late December. Her family says the security services are to blame, an allegation the PA denies.
The Jenin campaign had been planned for months, Palestinian officials say, and was accelerated in the wake of the weakening of Iran鈥檚 鈥淎xis of Resistance鈥� in Lebanon and Syria.
Another factor driving the campaign: Israel鈥檚 war against Hamas in Gaza and calls from the Israeli far right to export the war to the West Bank, PA officials and observers say.
In statements to the press, PA security forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Anwar Rajab has stressed the authority鈥檚 commitment not to give Israel an excuse to turn the West Bank into another Gaza, citing the international community鈥檚 inability to stop the 鈥済enocide鈥� there.
鈥淢any Palestinians in the authority and among the public are afraid of Israel taking advantage of the situation in refugee camps to do things in the West Bank similar to what they are doing in Gaza,鈥� says Ghassan Khatib, a professor of international studies at Birzeit University.
Community leaders preach dialogue as a way out of the crisis.
鈥淭he current form of resistance adopted by these groups is unlikely to yield results without significant costs,鈥� says Nidal Obeidi, a former mayor of Jenin and veteran Fatah official.
鈥淎t the same time, the PA must recognize that it cannot resolve this situation without an open and genuine dialogue,鈥� he says. Otherwise, it 鈥渞isks pushing the entire society into a national disaster.鈥�
Yet dissent is already splitting Mr. Abbas鈥� party itself.
Zakaria Zubeidi and Jamal Hawil, both Fatah officials imprisoned by Israel, released a statement recently denouncing the campaign, warning that the PA鈥檚 actions serve Israeli and U.S. interests rather than the Palestinian cause.
鈥淭he real problem is the lack of hope and the absence of any political horizon,鈥� they wrote. 鈥淭he resistance is not the issue; the issue lies with those who believe that eliminating resistance will secure them power and a state.鈥�
Potential embarrassment
With Palestinians鈥� disapproval of the PA and Mr. Abbas at all-time highs, much is at stake for the authority.
If it fails to root out the militants, or even stem their attacks, it will expose itself as an inept security partner for the United States and Israel and ruin its chance to govern Gaza, analysts say. At the same time, it will reveal itself as a hollow threat internally in the West Bank.
鈥淭he PA鈥檚 ability to navigate this crisis will have lasting implications for the future of governance and resistance in the West Bank,鈥� says Mr. Obeidi.
鈥淚n this operation, there is no way in which the authority can be completely successful or a complete failure,鈥� says Dr. Khatib. 鈥淚 think the outcome will be somewhere in between.
鈥淎s we all know, as long as there is occupation, there is going to be continued resistance.鈥�
