Photo by
Ehud Amiton/TPS-IL on 20 August, 2024
Palestinian Authority’s Jenin Crackdown: Mahmoud Abbas’s ‘Do-Or-Die’ Campaign
Jerusalem, 31 December, 2024 (TPS-IL) -- The Palestinian Authority’s struggle to crack down on terror groups in Jenin is becoming a high-stakes challenge for Mahmoud Abbas as his forces struggle to impose order after nearly one month.
Speaking to The Press Service of Israel, a senior Fatah official described the current situation as a “do-or-die campaign” for Abbas, who is determined to dismantle what he calls “resistance nests” in the refugee camp. For three weeks, PA security forces have been engaged in a grueling operation against armed factions in Jenin, resulting in the deaths of 11 people, including five PA security personnel, two senior Islamic Jihad figures and four residents.
The operation’s complexity deepened on Saturday with the death of local Hamas-affiliated journalist Shatha al-Sabbagh. According to her family, she was shot by a sniper as she walked to a grocery store. They claim the shot came from a Palestinian position in a home commandeered by the PA after its owner, a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad figure, was killed.
Hamas has capitalized on the incident, accusing the PA of killing Sabbagh to silence her reporting on PA “repression.” The PA, however, insisting its forces were not in the area. While a medical examination of Sabah’s body reportedly casts doubt on the sniper narrative, a spokesperson for the PA security services abruptly walked away from a television interview when Sabbagh’s mother joined in.
“The incident of the journalist’s killing greatly complicates matters,” a Palestinian source told TPS-IL. “The Palestinian Authority is facing a serious Shireen Abu Akleh incident, as this is happening while Israel is operating against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and is causing very large losses of life to residents in the Strip…”
The crackdown has become one of the most difficult tests for Abbas in recent years. In Ramallah’s Manara Square, demonstrations in support Islamic Jihad, and Hamas have already been seen meters away from the Abbas’s presidential compound. Clans in Hebron have threatened to retaliate against any terror groups who harm their sons serving in the PA security services. But a Palestinian source in Shechem (Nablus) told TPS-IL that Hamas is “exploiting the clans in the city to add fuel to the fire.”
Publicly, the Palestinian Authority explains the operation as a fight against “lawbreakers” and against Iranian and Islamic State influence, while one spokesperson stressed that Ramallah “is not fighting the ‘resistance,'” but against militias who have made life “unbearable” for Jenin residents.
But a senior PA official explained to TPS-IL during the initial raids that the crackdown was part of a broader strategy to demonstrate PA authority’s ability to maintain governance as Ramallah eyes eventually administering the Gaza Strip. An Arab diplomat later told TPS-IL that the PA’s raids were insufficient and that Arab leaders are urging US President-elect Donald Trump to replace Abbas.
Palestinians have not held national elections since 2005 and Abbas is now in the 19th year of what was supposed to be a four-year term. Since then, Abbas, 89, has cancelled several attempted elections amid Fatah-Hamas disagreements, most recently in 2021.
A public opinion survey released in mid-December, found 71% of Palestinians were dissatisfied with the leadership of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
