Middle East Monitor / December 14, 2021
The Israeli occupation is helping Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces crackdown on Palestinian factions in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli journalist revealed yesterday.
Speaking to public broadcaster Kan, Israeli journalist and specialist in Palestinian affairs Gal Berger said: “Israel hurried to help the PA because it is unable to deal with Hamas.”
Berger pointed out that Hamas “has recently raised its head in the West Bank.”
As part of the Israeli assistance to the PA, Berger said, Israeli occupation forces arrested senior Hamas leader in the West Bank Hassan Yousef.
This came two days after a report published by Safa, local Palestinian news agency, revealing that PA President Mahmoud Abbas had prepared a plan to crack down on Palestinian factions in order to open discussions with Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz soon.
Last week, Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Frej told Israeli Channel 12 news that he and Gantz were planning to meet Abbas very soon in order to “strengthen” the PA and “calm tensions” that have resulted in “a wave of terror attacks.”
This came in light of a fierce PA campaign against Palestinian factions that included detentions, dispersal of gatherings and confiscation of flags.
On Thursday, PA security officers raided the town of Tammun in the Jenin and confiscated Islamic Jihad banners during a reception held for Azmi Bani Odeh, a local resident who had just been released from Israeli prison.
PA security officers also attacked a number of Palestinians during a reception in Ramallah for Motasem Zaloum, who was also released from Israeli prison, and confiscated Hamas flags and summoned several participants for interrogation.
Similar such incidents have recently taken place across the occupied West Bank.
