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Repressions sparking outrage in the West Bank


Shatha Sabbagh, a journalism student in her early 20s from Jenin in the occupied West Bank, was returning home from buying sweets with her mother and three other relatives when the gunfire rang out.

The group dove to the ground, but it was too late for Shatha. “She had her eyes open and was looking at me,” said her mother, Nahed Sabbagh, her voice beginning to break. “And then I saw something coming from her head. And at this moment I realized that I had lost my daughter.”

In recent years, the Jenin refugee camp where Shatha was killed – a maze of narrow streets that has become one of the main strongholds of Palestinian militant groups in the West Bank – has repeatedly been the target of deadly and devastating attacks by Israeli security forces.

But Shatha’s death in late December came amid something far less common: an operation by Palestinian Authority security forces, which exercise limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank, against militants from the camp.

Palestinian officials say the operation — now in its sixth week and by far the largest the PA has launched in its 30-year existence — is designed to restore law and order against “renegades” in the rebel camp, which has long been outside PA control. .

The operation is also widely interpreted as an attempt by the PA to demonstrate to the international community that it has the capacity to take on a role in governing Gaza once the war between Israel and Hamas in the enclave ends — an idea supported by the US, Arab and European states, but fiercely opposed by Israel’s hardline government.

Israel and Hamas this week finally reached a multi-phase deal to end the 15-month war and free the hostages still being held in Gaza. But it is not clear whether this will lead to a permanent end to the war, with far-right ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government demanding that Israel resume hostilities.

“PA wants to show . . . whoever thinks about the day after, can set rules and laws, and can play a role not only in the West Bank but also in Gaza,” said Adnan Alsabah, a political analyst from Jenin.

But the killing of civilians like Shatha, which her mother blames on the PA and PA militants, has sparked outrage and threatens to further erode the weakened PA’s dwindling domestic legitimacy. Founded as a stepping stone for a Palestinian state, it is now seen by many Palestinians as an intermediary in the Israeli occupation.

“The people in the camp had one enemy. Now they have two,” Sabbagh said. “[Israel] and PA — they are two sides of the same coin.”

Palestinian police disperse protesters during a protest against clashes between Palestinian security forces and militants in Jenin © Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images

The PA operation began in December after militants seized two PA vehicles, paraded them around the camp to protest the arrest of two Islamic Jihad militants, and shot at municipal buildings. Since then, PA forces say they have arrested dozens of suspected militants, defused improvised bombs and seized large quantities of weapons and ammunition.

But the situation in Jenin remains unstable. When the Financial Times visited, the approaches to the camp were blocked by PA vehicles and checkpoints. There was a repeated exchange of fire, including one that claimed the life of a 50-year-old woman.

Brigadier General Anwar Rajab, a spokesman for the PA security forces, said that in addition to restoring law and order, the operation was meant to prevent militant attacks that would have given the Israeli government an excuse to launch a major operation in the territory.

Netanyahu’s government, considered by many to be the most right-wing in Israel’s history, is backed by ministers determined to annex the West Bank, emboldened by the re-election of Donald Trump.

“We do not want an all-out confrontation with [Israel]Rajab said. “We will be the ones who will lose in this confrontation. We don’t want to let anyone drag us there.”

Smoke rises from Jenin during clashes between militants and Palestinian Authority security forces this week © Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images

But others see the latest PA operation, which Rajab said involved “several hundred” troops, as far less calculated and claim it has left the government in a bind.

“The PA is not in a position to demolish the camp with mass force, because if they did, there would be mass casualties and its support would fall off a cliff, and it could also cause unrest in other parts of the West. Bank,” said Ibrahim Dalalsha, director of the Ramallah-based Horizon Center for Policy Studies.

“But after sending all those troops, if the PA withdraws now, it will fall, not only in the eyes of its international and regional partners, but also in terms of domestic politics.”

So far, both sides in Jenin seem to have been relatively restrained.

Over the past six weeks, hostilities have claimed the lives of six members of the Palestinian security services and nine others. The PA said the three were militants, but according to the UN only one was armed.

By contrast, a major Israeli operation in Jenin last year killed 21 people in nine days, according to Palestinian officials. Israel then said it had killed 14 militants. This week, two Israeli drone strikes on Jenin killed 12 people. According to the latest UN figures, Israeli forces have killed 795 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.

But while the death toll in the PA operation is relatively low, the fact that Palestinians are fighting each other – even as the Israeli military has carried out devastating attacks on Gaza – has prompted widespread soul-searching.

“What is happening in Jenin is a black page in the history of the Palestinians,” said Alsabah. “It shows the world that we don’t agree, that we don’t have the same platform, that we don’t share the same vision.”

As the operation progressed, public pressure to end it grew. Community leaders in both Jenin and Ramallah appealed to the PA and militants to end the conflict, with further calls following Israeli drone strikes and the announcement of a cease-fire in Gaza. Attempts to mediate an end to the standoff were ongoing on Friday.

“The situation in Jenin will not defeat the PA militarily. There are more than 30,000 members of the security forces. He has the weapons and the money to maintain his control. And it has international and regional support,” said Dalalsha.

“The problem for the PA is that it has lost its public image, even before this operation. And the situation in Jenin made him even weaker.”

Cartography and data visualization by Aditi Bhandari and Chris Campbell



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