Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces have continued their siege of the Jenin refugee camp and the surrounding areas, and have intensified attacks against armed resistance groups there. The PA-led crackdown on West Bank resistance groups began last week.
The PA claimed in a statement that the objective of the large-scale security operation on the camp is “to maintain security and civil peace, establish the rule of law, and eliminate sedition and chaos”. However, Palestinian resistance groups and grassroots accused the security forces of collaboration with the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in an attempt to eradicate Palestinian armed resistance against occupation in the camp, after the IOF failed to accomplish that in the last few years.
The military campaign which the PA called “Operation Protect the Homeland” provoked both ire and mockery of Palestinian grassroots, because the PA has never been able to protect Palestinians in the West Bank from the IOF’s systematic crimes and Israeli settler violence.
So far, PA security forces have killed three Palestinians including Palestinian teenager Ribhi al-Shalabi (19), 12-year-old Mohammed Al-Amer and the field commander in Jenin Brigade Yazid Ja’ayseh on Saturday, December 14. Several other Palestinians have also been reported injured in the ongoing clashes.
In response to the killing incidents and the suffocating siege, residents of the camp held mass demonstrations, which were suppressed by teargas fired by Palestinian security forces against protesters.
The US provided military aid to PA to crush resistance in the West Bank
According to Axios, the Biden administration urged Israel to approve the military aid provided by the US to the PA’s security forces to bolster its large-scale operation against resistance groups in the West Bank.
The military aid is said to include urgent supplies of equipment and ammunition. The operation also seems to be carried out with direct supervision by US military officials. According to media reports, the US Security Coordinator of Israel-Palestinian Authority, General Michael Fenzel, met with the heads of the PA security services prior to the operation to discuss their plans.
Peoples Dispatch spoke to political activist, freedom fighter and former prisoner in Israeli jails, Mr. Omar Assaf to discuss more about the security campaign launched by the PA against resistance groups in Jenin, its repercussions, and how it relates to the post-war Gaza governance proposal.
Peoples Dispatch: Why did the Palestinian security forces decide to launch this fierce campaign on the Jenin refugee camp at this time specifically?
Mr. Omar Assaf: It is not the first time that the Palestinian security forces pursue and prosecute resistance fighters in the occupied West Bank, as part of the security coordination process between the PA and the Israeli Occupation, which has turned into a security collaboration.
Since the beginning of “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”, the Palestinian security forces reportedly killed almost 13 Palestinians, to maintain this coordination process, which Israel seems to be not interested to proceed with anymore after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently unveiled the intentions of the Zionist state to annex the occupied West Bank.
When it comes to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, his position from armed resistance has always been obvious. On many occasions, he explicitly expressed his opposition to armed resistance. Several years ago, during an interview with an Israeli channel, Mahmoud Abbas bragged about the campaign his security forces launched against Palestinian schools to search the bags of students and make sure they do not have knives, which they would have used to kill Israeli soldiers.
In 2006, Abbas was slammed by Palestinian grassroots for calling rockets fired by resistance groups in Gaza in retaliation for Israeli assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank as “pointless and needles”.
Nevertheless, after the Axis of Resistance took heavy blows in Gaza, Lebanon and lately Syria, the PA decided to intensify its campaign against the armed resistance in the West Bank, particularly in the north. Abbas exploited the current debility of resistance in the region to reaffirm that the surrender and defeat approach, which he has always followed, is the right approach Palestinians should believe in.
By launching an intensified military campaign in Jenin refugee camp, the PA is entreating Israel and the United States to assign it to rule post-war Gaza. The PA believes that in this way, it is providing accreditation to Israel and the US, by telling them to test its capability to crack down on armed resistance in the West Bank, which they would need in Gaza.
The PA and Israel have always divided roles to eradicate armed resistance in the West Bank. Unfortunately, the PA managed to dismantle the Lions’ Den Brigade, which was active in the northern city of Nablus in 2022 and 2023 by arresting some of its members and reaching compromises with others.
Meanwhile, the IOF have focused on eradicating the Jenin Brigade since 2021. As they failed to do so even after launching “Operation Summer Camp” in August 2024, they assigned the Palestinian security forces to eradicate the Jenin Brigade on their behalf. IOF authorized the PA to complete this mission, because resistance fighters would not fire back at Palestinian security forces to avoid sliding into an internal conflict.
In its security campaign against resistance groups, the PA has been guided by US security experts, who arrive regularly to the West Bank, particularly to Ramallah, and some of them even stay.
PD: What are the repercussions of the events in Jenin refugee camp?
OA: The PA will be the biggest loser and may even collapse whether it succeeds in eradicating the Jenin Brigade or whether it is defeated, because it will further lose its popularity among Palestinian grassroots, who have always supported armed resistance against the Israeli occupation.
What the Palestinian security forces are doing in Jenin will help Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir in achieving their plans to annex the West Bank.
The Zionist ministers will use the events in Jenin, which reflect Palestinian internal conflict, to convince the world that Palestinians do not deserve to have their own state established. This in turn, will serve their proposals to resolve the conflict by passing the Nation-State Bill, expanding settlement, destroying the Gaza Strip, desecrating Al-Aqsa mosque and building the Temple on its ruins, and systematically targeting Palestinian prisoners.
Furthermore, Palestinian internal conflict would pave the way for Israel to deport Palestinians from the West Bank to other neighboring countries, as the West Bank referred to by Israel as Judea and Samaria, has always been the most important area within the “Greater Israel” project.
Moreover, the PA’s security operation in Jenin refugee camp threatens social peace as it will ignite revenge among Palestinians. It will also foster division and undermine the resilience of the Palestinian people.
PD: The PA’s security operation in Jenin coincided with its rejection of an Egyptian proposal to form a joint social support committee to govern post-war Gaza. Do the events in Jenin co-relate with that rejection?
Mr. Omar Assaf: The PA’s rule in the West Bank has always been considered an authoritarian regime, where President Mahmoud Abbas alongside the Head of the General Authority of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh, and the Head of General Intelligence Service Majed Faraj solely control decision-making. These three men, who represent absolute autocracy, have constantly dominated Palestinian politics through their stranglehold of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, with which most of the Palestinian factions affiliate.
The PA resorted to rejecting the Egyptian proposal through the PLO to gain unanimity, especially as the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are not members of the PLO. The PA rejected the proposal because it is looking forward to imposing an authoritarian rule on Gaza without leaving a room for power sharing with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
However, the PA justified its rejection by its refusal to divide the rule in the West Bank from Gaza. The justification does not seem to be credible as the PA already rejected the implementation of the national unity agreement signed last July, in China’s capital Beijing. Consequently, Abbas’s administration undermined all efforts to establish a government of national accord, which would have become a reference framework for the proposed joint social support committee in Gaza. Abbas does not want Hamas to be a partner in governing Gaza, although it showed flexibility about such partnership with the PA.
As the PA is refusing to separate its rule in the West Bank from its prospected rule in Gaza, it wanted to eradicate the armed resistance phenomenon in the West Bank to show Israel and the new US administration that it is the best candidate to rule the Gaza strip with an iron grip.
Peoples Dispatch: How would the Palestinian people confront the PA’s security campaign against resistance in the West Bank?
Mr. Omar Assaf: The only way to stop this campaign is by exerting pressure on Abbas, Al-Sheikh and Faraj, and this cannot be done through factions, national movements or civil society institutions, as the PA has worked relentlessly to weaken their influence on the Palestinian political scene. Therefore, the only source of pressure would be mass demonstrations. People across the West Bank should take to the streets in large numbers to protest against the PA’s repression of resistance groups.
Masses have to overcome the individualistic ideology that the PA has entrenched deeply in the Palestinian society in the West Bank, where capitalist values prevail and personal survival is what matters the most. They also should defy their fear of being arrested by the Palestinian security forces due to their opposition to the PA.