According to senior PA sources, PA chairman Abu Mazen fears that the wave of terrorism in the West Bank will destabilize his rule, in recent days he has turned to Egyptian President al-Sisi and requested that Egyptian intelligence intervene with Israel and obtain Israeli agreement to avoid the entry of IDF forces to areas A of the PA claiming this will lead to the calming of the area.
According to Egyptian officials, Egyptian intelligence opened talks with Israel, at the request of Abu Mazen,
as a result of the Egyptian mediation, two senior representatives of the IDF and the Shin Bet met last week with Hussein al-Sheikh and Majed Faraj, close associates of Abu Mazen, and demanded that the PA prevent armed terrorists from taking over the city of Nablus, but the meeting ended without agreement and the differences of opinion remained.
The representatives of Israel rejected the Palestinian Authority’s proposal that the IDF refrain for a period of 4 months from entering Area A in the West Bank in order to bring calm.
They told the PA representatives that they would be ready to discuss the PA proposal again after the Jewish holidays.
Senior PA officials say that the entry of IDF forces into the city centers and refugee camps in Area A, which are under the full sovereignty of the PA, presents the PA and its leader to the residents of the West Bank as weak and as Israel’s “security contractor”, and on the other hand strengthens the position of Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Palestinian Street.
The purpose of the Egyptian mediation is to try and restore the situation to its original state and restore the PA’s position in order to prevent an explosion in the security situation.
Egypt links the security situation in the West Bank to what is happening in the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem and to the Al-Aqsa Mosque issue, given the strategy of Hamas and Islamic Jihad that began with the IDF operation In the Gaza Strip in May 2021 .
Egypt warned Israel that the escalation in the West Bank also has consequences on other fronts that have been quiet until now.
Hamas addressed Egyptian intelligence with a firm message regarding the situation in East Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Jewish holidays, saying that the entry of Jewish extremists into the Temple Mount will lead to an explosion of the situation at the border of the Gaza Strip, Hamas still maintains the “Gaza-Jerusalem” equation.
Fear of Abu Mazen’s speech at the UN
The US and Israel are exerting heavy pressure on PA chairman Abu Mazen to deliver a moderate speech at the UN that will not encourage violence and terrorism in the West Bank.
The chairman of the PA arrived in New York to deliver his annual speech at the United Nations General Assembly this Friday.
The PA has been engaged in a political campaign for several weeks aimed at obtaining the agreement of the United Nations to recognize the “State of Palestine” as a state with full membership in the organization, today it has the status of an “observer state”.
Israel strongly opposes this move, President Biden also opposes it, and last week he sent Barbara Leaf, the US assistant secretary of state, to Ramallah.
Abu Mazen refused to meet with her, but in a meeting with Hussein al-Sheikh, she clarified the president’s position and even issued a warning that if Abu Mazen does not accept President Biden’s position, the US will veto his request for full Palestinian membership in the Security Council.
In the meantime, the IDF is not waiting for Abu Mazen and is preparing for the possibility of an escalation towards the period of the Jewish holidays, in light of the campaign of incitement by Hamas and Islamic Jihad regarding the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the situation in East Jerusalem, the security establishment will increase its forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to prevent terror attacks.
The attack In the Carmel settlement in the Hebron area at the end of last week, is worrying and it symbolizes the terrorist organizations’ intention to expand the wave of terrorism from the north of the West Bank to the south as well.
The IDF is also preparing for a wide military operation in the West Bank to fight the infrastructure of terrorism beyond the arrest of wanted terrorists.
The assessment in the security establishment is that such an operation will not lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority.
Despite the wave of terrorism and the loss of the Palestinian Authority’s security control over the Jenin and Nablus areas, the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority is still in control of the situation and there is currently no fear of the collapse of his rule.
