Qassam Muaddi
Mondoweiss / December 17, 2024
The Palestinian Authority is in the midst of a deadly operation it says is to ‘restore law and order’ in the Jenin refugee camp, home to the Jenin Brigade. But as the PA seeks to assert its control, it could risks undermining itself in the process.
The Palestinian Authority continued its military operation in the Jenin refugee camp for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday, clashing with local Palestinian resistance fighters. The operation, which was launched last Saturday, has so far left two Palestinians killed, a young boy and a fighter from the Jenin Brigade, the local resistance group in Jenin, who was wanted by Israeli forces. Several Palestinian security officers were also injured.
Tensions were building up between Jenin fighters and the Palestinian security forces since last week, when Jenin fighters stopped two Palestinian police vehicles and confiscated them, in protest of a wave of arrests of their members by Palestinian security forces. Palestinian security then sealed off the refugee camp, which led to an eruption of clashes between both sides.
The spokesperson of the Palestinian security forces, Anwar Rajab, said that the operation “aims at taking back the Jenin camp from elements outside of the law who have deprived citizens from their security and their right to access public services.” For his part, the spokesperson of the Jenin Brigade, who concealed his identity, told Al-Jazeera that he and his men “are not outlaws, we are for implementation of the law, but where is the law when the Israeli army comes to arrest us?” adding that “the Palestinian Authority wants Jenin disarmed.”
“What does the occupation need to do so that the Palestinian Authority understands that it needs to direct its weapons to the occupation, rather than to its own people?” the spokesperson of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Mohammad Mousa said on Monday in a debate with the spokesperson of the Palestinian security forces Anwar Rajab on Al-Jazeera. “The resistance fighters are the sons of the camp, defending themselves, their families, and their community, in the absence of anyone to defend them, and not once have they lifted a gun against their own people or against the Palestinian authority,” Mousa said.
“We will not allow Hamas and the Islamic Jihad to drag us into an all-out confrontation with Israel, which will lead to the destruction of our people,” replied Anwar Rajab. “Do you want us in [in the West Bank] to see the same fate as Gaza?” he went on. “We will not allow external forces to destroy our national project by targeting the West Bank through paid-off mercenaries, and our security forces will continue to chase down those mercenaries who receive suspicious support,” he said, to which Mousa replied by asking if “defending oneself and one’s country is a suspicious act?”
Contrary to Rajab’s statements characterizing the resistance fighters as “mercenaries” with “suspicious” means of support who have “deprived citizens” of their security, residents of the Jenin camp have historically been vocal in their support of the local armed resistance groups.
Although both positions have been confronting for years in the West Bank, it is the first time that the conflict has escalated to such a violent and explicit level. The Jenin Brigade was formed in late 2021 by a small group of militants from different political affiliations, as a result of repeated Israeli raids, especially after the capture of two of the six escapees from the Gilboa high-security Israeli prison in Jenin, in September of the same year. The Brigade grew in size and soon began to issue its statements as a branch of ‘Saraya Al-Quds’, or the Jerusalem Battalions, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad.
The armed resistance model in Jenin resonated deeply with Palestinians in the West Bank, so much so that the same model was replicated in other northern West Bank cities, like Tulkarem, Tubas, and Nablus, where local brigades began to increase their armed confrontations against invading Israeli forces, which have grown in frequency and violence in recent years. In July 2022, Israel employed armed drones to strike Palestinian fighters in Jenin, in a first air strike in the West Bank in more than 20 years. Israeli raids included massive military bulldozers which destroyed the camp’s infrastructure, from water pipes, to electricity networks, to public monuments.
In an effort to combat the rise of these groups, the Palestinian Authority, which maintains security coordination with Israel, tried to persuade Palestinian fighters to give up their arms, in exchange for negotiating their amnesty with Israel and receiving sums of money and jobs in public service. Only a very small number of fighters took the offers, and the resistance groups grew in size and in experience.
On Sunday, Axios reported that the US asked Israel to allow military aid to the PA amidst its ongoing operation in Jenin. Both Arab and Israeli observers have considered the PA’s operation as an attempt to show its capacity to control the West Bank ahead of Trump’s coming into office, especially amidst Israeli reported preparations for “an extreme scenario” in the West Bank, which would include “the dismantlement of the PA and a wave of violence”, according to the Israeli daily ‘Israel Hayom’, quoting Israeli army sources.
According to other analysts, the PA acted after fears that Palestinian militants would draw inspiration from the collapse of the Syrian regime, and try to topple the PA. These speculations come despite the fact that Palestinian resistance groups have rarely initiated confrontation with PA forces, focusing their efforts primarily on confronting Israeli forces.
Analysis: How does the Jenin operation relate to Gaza ?
The timing of the PA operation in Jenin can’t be dissociated from the reported advances in ceasefire talks in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, especially with reported pressure from Donald Trump to conclude a deal to free the Israeli captives in Gaza before his inauguration.
In the past few weeks, the PA has been holding talks with Hamas and the rest of Palestinian factions in Cairo, simultaneously to Hamas’s indirect talks with Israel to reach an agreement on the topic of administrating Gaza after the war. Both Hamas and Fatah, the ruling party of the PA, agreed on forming a technocratic, independent committee to receive and administrate reconstruction aid to Gaza, and oversee reconstruction efforts and daily affairs in the strip.
Meanwhile, PA president Mahmoud Abbas appointed the head of the Palestinian National Council, the highest representative body of the Palestinian people, as his successor to organize elections in case he might be out of the picture.
These steps are seemingly in line with repeated US demands to see “a revitalized Palestinian Authority,” in the midst of a complete absence of any real “peace” negotiations with Israel, which has largely affected the political legitimacy the PA, as Israel openly flaunts plans to annex the West Bank and vocalizes its blatant rejection of a Palestinian state.
On Sunday, Israeli sources reported that the heads of Israeli settlement councils in the West Bank presented a request to the Israeli cabinet before its weekly meeting, asking to implement the same model of action practiced by Israel in Gaza on the West Bank, particularly the forced displacement of refugee camps and large military operations against Palestinian resistance groups. Earlier last week, Israeli commentators on Israel’s channel 14 discussed publicly the possibility of implementing Gaza’s model in the West Bank, after seeing the images of Jenin fighters confiscating PA police vehicles.
With these developments, and in the midst of a loss of the PA’s political leverage, it seems that its leaders want at the same time to prove their capacity to control security in the Gaza Strip after the war, and in the West Bank in coming years under an annexation-friendly Trump administration.
The blind spot of the PA’s strategy, however, lies within internal Palestinian tensions, which will only rise as civilians in the West Bank – who are generally favourable towards armed resistance groups like the Jenin Brigade and unfavourable towards the PA – watch the confrontations play out in Jenin.
While the current show of force by the PA might buy it sometime and relevance, it likely won’t give it back its the political strength it seeks, which it can only regain by supporting, both in word and action, a united Palestinian stand against Israel’s occupation and genocide. And in order to do that, it needs to have all Palestinians on its side – something that likely won’t be achieved with its current strategy in Jenin.
Qassam Muaddi is the Palestine Staff Writer for Mondoweiss
