Snipers have also been stationed throughout the camp as part of the PA’s effort to establish control over the area, which is home to around 25,000 Palestinians originally displaced from their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948 [Getty]
Armed clashes erupted again early on Sunday in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, where Palestinian Authority (PA) security officers – backed by Israeli military – continued their crackdown on Palestinian resistance fighters.
Local sources reported hearing gunfire around the camp’s entrances and perimeter, as PA security forces encircling the camp clashed with fighters from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)’s Jenin Brigade.
On Sunday, Palestinian news agency Wafa, reported the first death of a member of the PA security forces, Saher Farouk Jumaa Erheil of the presidential guard.
Erheil, one of four Palestinians including a 14-year-old boy killed in Jenin this month, was the first member of the security forces to die in the violence. Others killed were a fighter, and a 19-year-old passerby on a motorcycle.
Meanwhile, the PIJ called for a general strike and mass mobilisation on Sunday, urging mass demonstrations towards the camp to lift the siege and end the PA’s crackdown, which the group said only serves Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and expansion of settlements.
“The mobilisation is the least moral duty we can fulfil to uphold the Palestinian cause; it is essential to support Jenin and its resistance fighters while honouring the sacrifices of our brothers in besieged Gaza,” the PIJ said in a statement.
For the past 18 days, Palestinian fighters in Jenin have been locked in a rare open battle with the PA forces, arrested more than two dozen Palestinian fighters were arrested.
PA security forces have taken control of approximately ten homes within the camp, converting them into military outposts and forcibly displacing their residents.
Snipers have also been stationed throughout the camp as part of the PA’s effort to establish control over the area, which is home to around 25,000 Palestinians originally displaced from their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948.
A Wall Street Journal report on Sunday stated that the PA, backed by the West, is attempting to demonstrate its ability to manage security in its limited areas of the West Bank as it aims to govern a postwar Gaza Strip.
In the latest round of ceasefire negotiations, Israel has agreed to let the PA take over administration of the Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt for a short period, according to a former Egyptian official cited by the WSJ.
It comes as Israeli officials revealed that the Israeli military was backing efforts to increase coordination and cooperation with the PA under government orders.
While the PA has a relatively strong presence in the southern and central West Bank cities, it has failed to assert control in the northern part of the territory, especially the refugee camps in Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarem areas.
The Israeli army sought to encourage the PA to continue in its crackdown operations, with officials saying Israeli forces would “do what they can” to ensure the PA was “strong” and “successful” in its operations against “terrorists”.
Recent reports by Israeli media highlighted that the crackdown would “benefit” Israel, highlighting that steps were being taken to “bolster” PA forces.
