West Bank operation tests Palestinian leaders’ ability to root out militants

JENIN, West Bank – The Palestinian Authority was carrying out one of the most extensive security operations in its history, pursuing armed militants in the West Bank city of Jenin. For weeks, its forces slowly advanced on the militants’ densely populated stronghold, Palestinian officials said.

When the

Israeli military launched its own wide-scale raid

there in January, the Palestinian Authority was expected to abandon its operation.

But it did not.

Instead, when dozens of militants fled to nearby villages, the Palestinian security forces swooped in to arrest them, officials said. “We made very important progress in reinforcing law and order,” Brigadier-General Anwar Rajab, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, said in a phone interview.

The Palestinian Authority, which has limited governing powers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, had for years largely ceded the fight against militants to Israel.

But as questions swirl over whether it can take on governance and security in the Gaza Strip, the group’s leaders appear eager to demonstrate that they will not shy away from fighting – even if it means angering Palestinians who say the Palestinian Authority is abetting an operation that is destroying large parts of the West Bank and displacing tens of thousands.

Jenin, and in particular the Jenin camp, a sprawling neighbourhood built for refugees in the aftermath of the 1948 Israeli-Arab war, had become a haven for Iran-backed armed fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Over the years, they have grown more sophisticated in their ability to develop explosives and obtain advanced weaponry, like M16 rifles smuggled from Israel.

Since Oct 7, 2023, when Hamas

led an attack on Israel

that started the war in Gaza, Israel has carried out scores of raids in the West Bank, including with air strikes, killing many civilians.

Israel says it carries out these raids in accordance with international law. The Palestinian Authority mostly avoided a direct confrontation with the militants, trying to encourage them to turn themselves in.

But in December, the Palestinian Authority decided to take more forceful action. Security forces had arrested an Islamic Jihad operative while he was picking up tens of thousands of dollars smuggled into the West Bank, according to Palestinian officials.

The New York Times spoke to more than a dozen Palestinian officials about the operations in Jenin. They all spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations and operational plans.

The militants responded by hijacking two government trucks and parading through the city, in a scene caught on video and widely shared on social media. The episode was a stark representation of the authority’s weakness: It was broad daylight and the trucks were draped in the flags of Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas was so enraged that he felt he had to act immediately after he saw the video, according to Palestinian officials.

The Palestinian Authority deployed elite forces and armoured vehicles – it set up checkpoints and engaged in daily gun battles with militants in the camp.

More than a dozen people were killed, including six security officers, a journalist, a woman and three teenage boys. It also led to the displacement of thousands and widespread losses of water and power.

Hundreds of people were arrested, Mr Rajab said at a news conference in January, though it was unclear how many were gunmen.

The Palestinian Authority was cautious about making hasty moves on the militants, wary that could lead to a large number of civilian deaths, according to officials. After weeks in which the Palestinian Authority struggled to make progress in its operation, Israel raided Jenin.

It was widely assumed that the Palestinian Authority’s operation would end, but Palestinian security chiefs stayed in Jenin, directing intelligence-based arrest operations in nearby villages, some of the Palestinian officials said. The chiefs recently pulled back to Ramallah, the administrative headquarters for the Palestinian Authority, but arrest operations continue around Jenin, the officials said.

In the days after Israel raided the city, the Palestinian Authority’s security forces arrested 120 gunmen who had left the camp, Mr Rajab said on Feb 26.

The extent to which the Palestinian Authority and Israel have been coordinating on this operation is unclear. Both sides have long shared information and worked to avoid running into each other, several Palestinian officials said, a policy that many Palestinians have criticised.

Mr Rajab would only say that the Palestinian Authority was doing “what it needed to do” in Jenin. In the face of criticism from Palestinians, it has said that many of the militants have criminal backgrounds.

Lieutenant-Colonel Nadav Shoshani, a spokesperson for the Israeli military, said at a news briefing in January that Israel and the Palestinian Authority maintained deconfliction protocols “to make sure we don’t get in each other’s way”, but he did not go into detail about how that has worked in Jenin.

Israel’s recent operation has inflicted some of the most severe damage in years, ripping up roads, demolishing dozens of buildings and killing more than 25 people in the broader Jenin area, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, has vowed that the military will remain there long term, raising alarm among Palestinian Authority officials.

Israel’s military has said it killed dozens of militants across several cities in the northern West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority has refused to step away from its operation in Jenin, arguing that it must seize every opportunity to subdue the militants, whom it has accused of giving Israel pretext to destroy the city.

That has hardly raised its standing among residents of the West Bank, who broadly see it as a corrupt entity that colludes with Israel. Many Palestinians also see the armed groups in Jenin as fighting for them against forces occupying the West Bank.

“They are two sides of the same coin,” said Mr Shadi Abu Samen, 47, a resident of the Jenin camp, referring to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

In phone interviews with The New York Times, militants in the Jenin Brigade of Islamic Jihad said they had taken up weapons to confront Israeli soldiers raiding their neighbourhood.

Mr Abu Mohammed, a member of the brigade, said he believed the Palestinian Authority and Israel were pursuing a similar goal: “Eradicate the resistance and its spirit.”

“They want us to surrender but we won’t accept that,” said Mr Abu Mohammed, 33, using his nom de guerre.

The Times spoke to Mr Abu Mohammed before Israel’s latest operation in Jenin and has since been unable to reach him.

Some Palestinian analysts said the focus on security would not be enough if neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority made any attempt to improve living conditions as well.

“We’re talking about a place that lacks so many basic resources,” said Mr Ibrahim Dalalsha, the director of the Horizon Centre, a Palestinian research group in Ramallah. “Any security operation needs to be accompanied by a social, economic, development operation.”

Civilians have paid a clear price for the operations. Almost all of the residents of the Jenin camp have been displaced over the past two months, according to the United Nations.

“We’re living through a violent storm,” said Mr Hilal Jalamneh, 50, a resident of the camp. “The last bit of hope we were holding on to is now gone.” NYTIMES