A new front in the Middle East: Militants battle Palestinian Authority in sprawling refugee camp

By Kareem Khadder, Tim Lister and Nadeen Ibrahim, CNN

Jenin, West Bank (CNN) — For more than a week, the sprawling Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank has echoed to the sound of heavy gunfire – with masked snipers on roof tops and muffled explosions within its warren of alleyways.

But the combat has not involved the Israeli military, which has launched countless raids in recent years against what it calls terrorists in the camp, a stronghold of resistance to the Israeli occupation.

This fight is between Palestinians: the security forces of the Palestinian Authority and militant groups aligned with Hamas who say the PA has sold out to Israel.

The authority, which is supported by the West, launched its largest security operation in years to dislodge the militant groups in an attempt to show that it can handle the security situation in the West Bank as it eyes control over a post-war Gaza.

But the operation appears only to have stiffened resistance and alienated many of the thousands of civilians who live there. And they have gained little ground, with militants still in control of much of the camp.

The authority’s security forces have tried to arrest dozens of men they describe as outlaws trying to “hijack” the camp, which was established for Palestinians uprooted from their homes after Israel’s creation in 1948 and is now a built-up area that is home to some 25,000 people.

Hamas describes the fighters in the camp as the “resistance” – a coalition of militant groups that sees the authority and its security forces as doing Israel’s bidding.

The militant factions include the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Qassem Brigades, who fight under the banner of the Jenin Battalion.

The authority says that its forces have “advanced in very important ways” in the camp. But they have little of the technology and weaponry the Israeli military can bring to bear, and on Sunday a member of the Palestinian Presidential Guard was killed by militants’ gunfire.

Then on Monday, a member of the Palestinian Security Forces was killed, according to a spokesperson. A police sergeant was killed by gunfire from “outlaws in Jenin camp,” according to Brigadier General Anwar Rajab.

A journalist at the entrance to the camp told CNN that the area was reverberating Monday to the sound of heavy gunfire and explosions.a

The PSF had blocked all entrances to the camp, according to the journalist, who added that even paramedics were unable to get into the camp. Social media video showed diggers piling earth across streets leading from the camp.

One militant leader was also killed, as have three teenagers, the youngest of them 14. Each side blamed the other for their deaths.

The flare in violence caps off a deadly year in the area. Israel conducted a days-long raid in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas, in the northern West Bank, in September, killing at least 39 people and leaving widespread destruction, according to the authority’s health ministry and United Nations. Among them were at least nine militants, according to public statements from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

A litmus test for Gaza

The Palestinian Authority is nominally in charge of security in much of the West Bank under the Oslo Accords, signed in the 1990s with the aim of establishing a Palestinian state. But in the years since, Israel has extended its control of the occupied territory, expanded settlements and carried out frequent raids against militant Palestinian groups.

If the authority wants to take on a broader role in administering Palestinian areas or seek a return to Gaza – something that Israeli government has persistently ruled out – Jenin is a litmus test.

One of the militant commanders, Qais al Saa’di, told CNN in an interview deep inside the camp: “Israel is giving the authority a chance in Jenin, essentially saying, ‘If you can prove that you can control Jenin, a small city, then we’ll consider handing you Gaza.’”

Events in Jenin are also a bellwether for Iranian influence among the militants. Al-Sa’adi acknowledged that help was coming from Iran, a growing concern to the Israeli security services.

“We receive support from Iran and from anyone willing to help us, but we do not belong to Iran or to any external entity outside Palestine,” he said.

The extent and type of Iranian backing for the militants is hard to assess. But the Israeli security forces said in November they recovered large amounts of Iranian-supplied weapons near Jenin.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said on a recent visit to the West Bank that “Iran will not succeed in establishing an Iranian ‘octopus’ arm’” in the refugee camps, and a new fence on the border with Jordan would “prevent Iranian plans to smuggle weapons into Israel through Jordan.”

A spokesman for the Palestinian security forces, Brigadier General Anwar Rajab, told CNN that by financing the militants, Iran was seeking to spread “chaos and corruption” and weaken the Palestinian Authority, something that serves the interests of its projects in the region.

The Jenin Battalion is entrenched in the camp, the nerve center of a new wave of Palestinian militancy in the occupied territories.

The militant group’s growing use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) has added a layer of complexity for Israeli and the Palestinian authority’s efforts to combat them.

Qais Al-Sa’adi told CNN that IEDs had done severe damage to Israeli military vehicles, and he warned the security forces: “If you come into our area, you’ll face the same fate.”

“Urban warfare is our expertise, and it’s a game-changer,” he added.

The security forces maintain the militants are endangering innocent lives by planting explosive mines in the streets and in residences.

The confrontation in Jenin has polarized Palestinian opinion. Assad Aqel, a 27-year-old fighter who was seriously injured in an Israeli drone attack last year, told CNN that the people of the camp needed protection from the Israeli military – which was not being provided by the Palestinian Authority.

Aqel and other Jenin residents said the authority’s security operation had made life much more difficult – and dangerous in the camp, with some suggesting that it amounted to collective punishment. By the end of last week, much of the camp was without water and electricity. Garbage was piling up and children were unable to get to school.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said last week it had suspended its services to the camp, which include education and healthcare, amid the fighting. The agency condemned the occupation of its health center in Jenin camp by “Palestinian armed actors” last week.

Residents of the camp who spoke to CNN blamed the security forces for the latest violence.

Umm Hani, 74, who lives in the camp and has a vegetable store, said no one dared to step outside and described the Palestinian Authority as “criminals.” “The gunfire by the Palestinian Authority is random and they fire at everything,” she told CNN, saying she had narrowly missed injury from a bullet.

At a small protest against the operation last week, Nour Abdel Hadi, 29, told CNN: “We refuse the idea that the Palestinian Authority should spill the blood of one person. You can’t be a proxy for the occupation against the resistance.”

Local resident Ihab Sa’adi urged fresh dialogue between the Palestinian Authority and the militants.

Rajab, the security forces’ spokesman, said the Palestinian Authority had tried to negotiate with the factions – but its efforts had been ignored.

He said the militants’ action “spreads chaos in the West Bank and aids the Israeli occupation,” he said.

Amid the fighting and the sealing of exits from the camp, the mood among residents has grown more desperate.

Mahmoud al-Ghoul said his home had not received water for three weeks and was one of several residents to allege that the security forces had shot out water tanks. CNN has reached out to the Palestinian Authority about the claim.

“We don’t feel safe here, we can’t walk in the street, and we can’t go on a roof top. Life is almost paralyzed,” he said.

Ahmad Tubasi told CNN his children had been locked inside the house for two weeks and were traumatized. He was unable to get medicine for his 60-year-old mother.

He added that the authority should “give us the names of the ones you claim are outlaws and the entire camp will hand them over. The outlaws are inside the presidential compound,” referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ residence in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Palestinian officials have frequently complained that they don’t have the equipment they need to confront the militants. The authority also appears to have little support in areas like Jenin’s refugee camp which for now remains firmly under the control of the Jenin Battalion.

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