For the third week, the Palestinian Authority's (PA) security forces continued their assault in the Jenin camp against what they described as "outlaws". At least five deaths and dozens of injuries caused by the security forces' bullets were recorded from the camp, in addition to an unknown number of detainees.
The PA's controversial security campaign was met with popular Palestinian dissatisfaction, especially since those whom the PA is fighting against are armed groups resisting the Israeli army, which was unable to eliminate them afters dozens of incursions into the camp.
Political Palestinian activists, human rights activists, and various Palestinian political factions, led by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, called on the authority to stop pursuing militants in the camp.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently noted that the Israeli army is considering supplying the PA's security with military equipment to support the campaign in Jenin, while also studying how to strengthen intelligence cooperation.
The official spokesman for the Palestinian security forces, Anwar Rajab, said in a statement to the press on Monday that "the security services, with all their might, will continue to work to impose order, eliminate chaos, and protect the security of our people, whatever the sacrifices."
Rajab called on the Palestinians to stand with the security services, and to provide full cooperation in pursuing those he described as "criminals" to ensure security and stability.
On the other hand, the Jenin Brigade, which is at the forefront of armed action in the camp, confirmed that it will not give up its weapons and will not fulfil Israel's desire to surrender to the Palestinian security services.
One of the battalion's spokespersons said in a brief speech on Tuesday, "We call on the authority to withdraw its members from the camp and to stop the campaign that only serves the Israeli occupation. They call us outlaws, but we are only breaking [Israeli finance minister Bezalel] Smotrich and [Israeli minister of national security Itamar] Ben-Gvir's law."
People are suffering
Several protests and marches emerged in Jenin and Ramallah in rejection of the PA's security campaign, but they were suppressed in Jenin by the PA's forces.
The Palestinian security services also launched a series of summons and arrests against Palestinian political and human rights activists after their demands to stop the campaign. Palestinian journalists were also threatened, including Muhammad al-Atrash, a correspondent for Al Jazeera, who covers the events in Jenin.
Abdullah Jarrar, coordinator of the network of civil society organisations in Jenin, told °®Âþµº that the Palestinian people are the ones paying the price for all of this.
According to him, the conflict in Jenin is political and revolves around how to agree on a strategy of struggle against the occupation.
"The Jenin Brigade members believe that they are under occupation, and they have the right to resist it, and no party has the right to obstruct that; while the PA deals with the issue as if it were purely security and legal, and that it is not permissible to carry weapons, although resisting occupation is a legitimate right according to all international conventions," he said.
"The conditions in the Jenin camp are tragic. For 20 days, children have not yet been able to go to their schools, services are broken, the streets are unsafe, and random bullets kill anyone," he added.
The lives of workers who depend on daily income are at a standstill, which affects the economic situation in general, and the continued casualties on both sides will lead to a deep social crisis, according to Jarrar.
Security need
The US newspaper The Washington Post reported yesterday that the PA is trying through this campaign to prove its ability to manage security in the limited areas of the occupied West Bank that it controls, while it seeks to rule the Gaza Strip after Israel's war on the besieged coastal enclave.
For his part, political analyst Muhammad al-Qeeq opined to TNA that the authority is trying to prove itself in terms of security and become a major player in the upcoming Gaza arrangements.
But he went on to say that this wouldn’t succeed because it had repeatedly submitted papers like this in previous years hoping to obtain a political achievement, but in the eyes of Israel and the United States it has become a security company without prestige or sovereignty.
"What obscures any political achievement for the Palestinian Authority, despite what it offers in terms of security, is the annexation plan that Israel has practically embarked on, the arrival of [Donald] Trump to the White House, who is the architect of Israel’s expansion, and the fierce attack by settlers and the Israeli army on the West Bank cities, in addition to the growing anger among the Palestinians over the impact of the genocide in Gaza," he added.
"These circumstances make the future difficult for the outgoing authority according to local and international laws, and the only solution is for its president, Mahmoud Abbas, to announce the presidential and parliamentary elections decree," al-Qeeq said.
"What changes this plan is only the renewal of legitimacy to protect the West Bank from annexation, Jerusalem from Judaisation, and Gaza from annihilation. Otherwise, things are going to get worse with Israeli engineering of the scene without a Palestinian answer to annexation," he concluded.