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 shooting erupted.
The group sank to the ground, but for Shatha it was too late. “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 that moment, I realized that I had lost my daughter.”
In recent years, the Jenin refugee camp where Shatha was shot — a shelter 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 forces. security. .
But Shatha’s death in late December came amid something much rarer: an operation by security forces of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank, against the camp’s militants.
Palestinian officials say the operation – now in its sixth week, and by far the largest the PA has mounted in its 30-year existence – is designed to restore law and order against “outlaws” in the restive camp, which has long been beyond PA Control.
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The operation has also been widely interpreted as an attempt by the PA to show the international community that it has the capacity to take a role in the administration of Gaza once the war between Israel and Hamas in the enclave ends – an idea supported by the United States, Arab and European, but fiercely opposed by Israel’s hardline government.
Israel and Hamas finally reached a multi-phase deal this week 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 calling for Israel to resume hostilities.
“PA wants to show . . . anyone who thinks about tomorrow can make rules and laws, and that they 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, for which her mother blames the PA and PA militants, has fueled anger and threatens to further erode the weakened PA’s dwindling domestic legitimacy. Founded as a stepping stone to a Palestinian state, it is now seen by many Palestinians as an enabler of Israel’s occupation.
“The people in the camp once had an enemy. Now they have two,” said Sabbagh. “(Israel) and the PA – they are two sides of the same coin.”
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 opened fire on communal buildings. Since then, PA forces say they have arrested dozens of suspected militants, defused improvised explosive devices and seized large quantities of weapons and ammunition.
But the situation in Jenin remains volatile. When the Financial Times visited, the approaches to the camp were blocked by PA vehicles and checkpoints. There were repeated exchanges of gunfire, including one that claimed the life of a 50-year-old woman.
Brigadier General Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the PA security forces, said that in addition to restoring law and order, the operation was aimed at preventing attacks by militants that would give the Israeli government a pretext to launch a massive operation in the territory.
Netanyahu’s government, widely regarded as the most right-wing in Israeli history, is backed by ministers determined to annex the West Bank and emboldened by the re-election of Donald Trump.
“We don’t want an all-out confrontation with (Israel),” Rajab said. “We will be the ones who will lose in this match. We don’t want to let anyone drag us there.”
But others regard the PA’s latest operation, which Rajab said involved “a couple of hundred” troops, as far less calculated, and argue that it has left the authority in a bind.
“The PA is not in a position to hit the camp using massive force because if they did, there would be massive casualties and its support would fall off a cliff and this 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.”
For now, both sides in Jenin appear 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 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 said at the time it had killed 14 militants. This week, two Israeli drone strikes in Jenin have killed 12 people. According to the latest UN figures, Israeli forces have killed 795 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.
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But while the death toll from the PA operation has been relatively low, the fact that Palestinians have been fighting each other — even as the Israeli military has carried out a devastating assault on Gaza — has provoked extensive soul-searching.
“What is happening in Jenin is a black page in the history of the Palestinians,” said Alsabah. “It’s showing 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 has dragged on, public pressure for an end has grown. Community leaders in both Jenin and Ramallah have called on the PA and militants to end the standoff, with further calls following Israeli drone strikes and the announcement of a cease-fire in Gaza. On Friday, an effort was underway to mediate an end to the standoff.
“The Jenin situation will not defeat the PA militarily. It has more than 30,000 security forces. She has guns and money to maintain her control. And there is international and regional support”, said Dalalsha.
“The problem for the PA is that its position with the public has been lost even before this operation. And the situation in Jenin has made it even weaker.”
Data mapping and visualization by Aditi Bhandari and Chris Campbell
